Post Stevanovic Era: Time for One of Our Own

INTRODUCTION

The male senior national team, the Black Stars is by far the most followed national football team perhaps since independence and the signs show that is not changing anytime soon.So prominent has the Black Stars being that; who plays in that team and more importantly who leads them (technically) as manager/coach is as big a deal as is the aura and vibe that accompanies the team.Time and again, there’s been talk of football reigning as king over other sports (popularly referred to as lesser – known sports.) I am of another school – of – thought on this issue rather than lesser known; I would say lowly patronized sports.Well, even within football circles, the Black Stars hold the tag as most patronized and followed with all the other national football teams, the Black Meteors, Satellites, Starlets, Princesses, Queens and Challenge (paralympic team) following in a distance.When the last but one manager of the Black Stars (Milo) decided to resign on his own volition and to take up a job in Saudi Arabia with club side Al Ahly, it sent us back to square one: the search for another man to take by far the hottest seat in Ghana Football – Black Stars coach.I am of the opinion that not even the seat of the Football Association (FA) president is as hot and most scrutinized as the job of the national team coach. The job over the years has proven to be juicy but thorny at times.

A name bandied about at the time was of Ghanaian – born French international, Marcel Desailly; a football pundit with French channel Canal Plus. But the sticking point then was, he had no prior coaching experience despite his certificate in coaching.GORAN’S ENTRY AND EXPECTATIONSSo the FA after vetting all applicants settled on a Serb, Goran Stevanovic, who was to succeed his countryman Milovan Rajevac, he took over from Frenchman Claude Le Roy who came in after the exit of a certain Ratomir Doya Djukovic.

Goran appeared a very optimistic person from the word go, promising the next trophy within grasp – which was the African Cup of Nations. His task was pretty much cut out for him, Le Roy led the team to third at Ghana 2008, Milo went a step further to second in Angola 2010.Logically therefore, and with a team that from all indications was growing in strength over the period, Ghanaians were not going to settle for anything less that the top prize which had eluded the team on several attempts dating back to the last 30 years.

Below are a few of Goran’s pronouncements during his first interaction with the media during his official unveiling as national team coach:“Ghana is a very good team and I know that many coaches would love to be in my position today. That is why I want to take this exciting team further. I am aware that my job will not be easy… My biggest challenge in this role is to motive the players to believe that they can do better…”It is now time for trophies. It has been 30 years since Ghana last won the African Cup of Nations.

The Black Stars were third in 2008, second in 2010, it is time to be first again. We must play attacking and attacking football while being cautious in defence and I am sure we will achieve the results... I am here to build champions …and I'm certain that all of us want to be champions…”From afar, this man was clearly putting way too much pressure on himself especially so because beyond tactics there was much more to the ingredients that guarantee cup success in a tournament.After a number of games, I contend that his biggest test as coach came up, in a usually very unfamiliar position. Goalkeeping it was. As the man with the final decision on the team (at least as far as we know,) what went into not picking Kwarasey, but in dropping Richard ‘Olele’ Kingston?Then came naming of the Black Stars squad that was going to make the Gabon/Equatorial Guinea tournament.

I am the least interested in who and who made the squad but to the extent that the team failed to win as promised; Mr. Goran had to bear the FULL BLAME.Albeit not part of his contract that he would be sacked if he failed to win the AFCON 2012, the Serb looked to have fallen on his own dagger; in his infamous ‘It’s time to win trophies’ declaration.In the aftermath of his failure however, two issues have all but worsened the agitation for his sack, the leakage of twin documents – both of which were supposed to be rated as CONFIDENTIAL within the FA domain.The Black Stars AFCON 2012 tournament report allied with accusations that players were playing parochially and ridiculously allied was the resort to ‘Black magic/juju,’ amongst other issues.The big one if you ask me was the leakage of the coach’s CONTRACT with the FA, a document that dominated the sporting headlines in the print and electronic media for the past weeks.WHO’S NEXT IN THE HOT SEAT?The seat is hot and becomes hotter as qualifiers for the 2013 AFCON nears, I am inclined to remain on the fence this time round relative to who the GFA would most likely hire in the coming days weeks or months. I authored an article “Obroni father Bibinii kids: I told you so,” in which I projected that another expatriate was going to be coach, this time truly I am indifferent and sincerely hope that one of our own is handed the job.We are all witnesses to the back and forth about how the FA kept saying (specifically the former FA vice president, Fred Pappoe) competence than anything was going to inform who took over as Stars coach.This time again talk has started of how the coach wants to immediately find a successor to Goran who still had 10 months on his contract to go. They have fended off any talks with Desailly as have they remained coy on Sellas’ possible recruitment.CONCLUSIONI personally think we have had enough of the expatriate coaches thing and it is time we hand the team back to one of our own. Indeed the challenge for whoever it is (Desailly or Sellas) would be qualification in a very dicey AFCON group.We would be ungrateful to say that these expats have not helped our football they have but have consistently failed to get us glory, let’s not try a Ghanaian but hire and pay him as much as we would pay an expatriate. That if you ask me is the way forward.

GO BLACK STARS GO: GOD BLESS OUR HOMELAND GHANA!

By Abdur Rahman Shaban Alfa

alfarsenal@yahoo.com, newcguide@gmail.com