Next Stars coach must be Ghanaian – Nii Lantey Vanderpuye

Former Minister of Youth and Sports, Nii Lantey Vanderpuye, has suggested that the next coach of the senior national team should preferably be a local coach.

“I am for a Ghanaian coach or an African coach…I’m not racist or ethnocentric but I think Ghanaian coaches will do better,” he told Moro Awudu on Class FM’s Executive Breakfast Show on Wednesday, February 8.

He suggested that it was time officials stopped “maligning Ghanaian coaches and give them time and space to work”.

He was of the view that there was an abundance of competent coaches in Ghana who could perform better if given the opportunity to coach the senior national football team.

He listed Kwesi Appiah, Sellas Tetteh, CK Akunnor, Ibrahim Tanko, Marcel Desailly as examples of rich talents “who have what it takes to handle the Black Stars” if they are given the same incentives and free room to operate within a certain duration as done with foreign coaches.

He emphasised that if he were still in office as Sports Minister, Avram Grant would have ceased being the head coach of the Black Stars before the 2017 AFCON.

“If NDC had won the elections on December 7 and I had continued as Sports Minister, Avram Grant would not have even gone to Gabon. His contract ended before Gabon and I wouldn’t have sanctioned an extension of his contract,” he added.