We now know for a fact that by the time the deadline ends by close of work today, Milovan Rajevac would definitely be one of the applicants for the Black Stars job; left vacant by the sacking of Kwesi Appiah.
The Serbian is best known for his first stint with the Black Stars. After becoming Ghana head coach in late 2008, he took the local Black Stars to the final of the inaugural Championship of African Nations (CHAN) tournament in Cote D’Ivoire and despite injuries to key players like Stephen Appiah and Michael Essien at the time, qualified Ghana for the 2010 World Cup.
He would forever be credited for bravely going with youth before the 2010 African Nations Cup and it paid dividends when Ghana reached the final before losing to Egypt in Angola.
His work with the Black Stars in South Africa saw Ghana come within a penalty kick of the World Cup semifinal.
To give some perspective on his departure, at the time Rajevac was earning $45,000 a month. When his two-year contract expired after the 2010 World Cup, he was essentially a free agent.
The Ghana Football Association began talks with him in a bid to hand him a new contract and were prepared to offer him $66,000-a-month, but a lucrative offer from the Middle East worth over $110,000-a-month came in and after a 2012 African nations Cup qualifier against Swaziland, he left for the job.
Many have accused him of deserting Ghana, especially when he asked to go and sort out some family issues, only for Ghanaians to hear that he had joined Al Ahli in Saudi Arabia, but at the time, he was a free agent.
Four years down the line, the debate still rages over him and now that he has applied for a return, the debate will only intensify.
For the record, he only lasted five months with Al Ahli before losing his job, and a six-month stint with the Qatari national team also ended after defeat to India.
Essentially, he has been out of work since 2011. During his time with the Black Stars, what stood out was his preference for younger players who were prepared to work very hard and he came down on any potentially over inflated egos, as he did with Sulley Muntari at the 2010 World Cup.
Under him, it was so difficult for opponents to score against the Black Stars, but again, the Ghana team only scored more than one goal within 90 minutes on 4 occasions during his time in charge. So he was aptly nicknamed the “one-goal project.”
In the last three years, it is public knowledge that he has been shortlisted for the Egypt, Benin, Togo and Uganda jobs. This is amongst a host of jobs he is angling for.
I remember Ghana Football Association President Kwesi Nyantakyi telling me over two years ago that Rajevac had wanted to return to Ghana, just before Kwesi Appiah took over in April 2012.
Rajevac has monitored the Black Stars ever since; attending friendly games and we now know that Appiah at a point asked for his services as a technical adviser.
With all of this, the question is whether Rajevac would be the right fit for the job now.
We are now informed that the Serbian is among a minimum of eight coaches applying for the job and he believes that with the talent that Ghana has and with his technical and tactical knowledge, Ghana can qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
He is still highly regarded within the top echelons of the Ghana Football Association and will be favorite to land the job, but a few things worry me.
He has been out of work since 2011 and losing out on jobs in Benin, Togo and Uganda doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in me that he can do the Ghana job now.
Besides, football tactics evolve with each passing year and unless he has spent his time out updating his knowledge, it could prove problematic.
Again, second comings in most cases turn out to be disastrous.
I will never forget when Burkhard Ziese was in charge of the Black Stars in the early nineties. Under him, Ghana lost only once and conceded two goals as the Black Stars qualified for the 1992 African Nations Cup with two games to spare.
The Awuah Nyamekye-led GFA at the time decided to cut ties with him because he refused to allow them to interfere in his work.
He returned in 2003 and at the time I thought he could steady the ship because the Black Stars team was in a transitional period.
Many like myself were proved wrong when he deemed the goalkeepers in camp not good enough and instead asked Edward Ansah, working as a goalkeeper’s trainer with the team, to start against Uganda in a 2004 African Nations Cup qualifier.
That game ended 1-1, and after a 0-1 loss to Rwanda in Kigali, Ghana failed to qualify and Ziese left.
We all know how things worked out when Carlos Alberto Parreira won the 1994 World Cup and returned to take Brazil to the 2006 World Cup. Brazil failed to get past the quarterfinals.
And we all know what happened to Luis Felipe Scolari when he returned to coach Brazil during the 2014 World Cup.
Honestly, I will be happy to be proved totally wrong if Rajevac gets the job and does well. It would not be the first time he would have proved me wrong because during his first stint, I was a critic until he won me over.
I am just being honest and what worries me even more are his demands for a €70,000-a-month salary, plus salaries for an assistant coach and an interpreter. I suppose the GFA would try to negotiate with him, but the asking price seems a bit much to me.
There are some who would also argue that because of Kwesi Appiah’s tactical failings, which were made apparent during the 2014 World Cup, Ghana cannot get worse under Rajevac, who would bring tactical organization to the team.
At the moment, we can only wait and see whether Milo is the best fit for the job and whether or not he gets it is also open to question.
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