Incoming Black Stars coach, Kwasi Appiah, says he is going to roll up his sleeves, get his hands dirty and help make the senior national team great again.
Appiah arrived in the country last Friday from the UK to begin a second stint as head coach of the national team on May 1, three years after he was sacked in the aftermath of Ghana’s disastrous campaign at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
This time, however, Appiah is confident of enjoying the support of Ghanaians to make his comeback a success, make Ghanaians proud and win back their love for the team.
“I will do the best that I can but I can never do it without your help. I will need the support and prayers of every Ghanaian to make our Black Stars proud and great again,” said the 56-year-old coach who resigned this month as head coach of Sudanese top flight side Al Khartoum to take up the coveted Stars job again.
Ahead of a scheduled meeting with the Ghana Football Association this week to discuss the details of his contract, including the composition of his technical team, Appiah made a surprise appearance at the El-Wak Stadium in Accra last Saturday to watch Inter Allies lose to Liberty Professionals on penalties in a MTN FA Cup Round of 64 match. He sat in the company of close friends and coaches, including Maxwell Konadu and Ibrahim Tanko, two of the men tipped to form part of his technical staff.
Appiah has had a long-standing romance with the Stars in different capacities as a teenage member of the team that won Ghana’s fourth Africa Cup of Nations in 1982 and later became the captain and returned almost two decades later as assistant coach until he was elevated as head coach in 2012.
Appiah believes his return to the team was predestined. He told the media at the Kotoka International Airport last Friday that he always believed he would return to the post after his first stint was truncated prematurely in 2005.
“I always had this belief that you never say never in coaching. You always need to have an open mind so that when the opportunity comes you take it,” he said.
“I will take this opportunity to thank the President of the nation, the FA and every Ghanaian for giving me the second chance to coach the national team.”
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