Taking over Black Stars was our biggest challenge – Roger de Sa

Black Stars assistant coach, Roger de Sa has revealed that inheriting a Ghana side on a six-match losing streak was the toughest obstacle faced by the technical team ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Speaking on 947's MSW, the South African coach reflected on the difficult circumstances under which he and head coach Carlos Queiroz took charge of the national team just months before the tournament.

"I think when you are coaching, you're always going to get different challenges along the way and firstly for us was taking over a team which had gone six defeats in a row. I think that was the biggest challenge straight away," De Sa said.

According to the former Orlando Pirates coach, the immediate priority was to restore confidence within the squad and rebuild a winning mentality after a prolonged run of disappointing results.

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"We were like, 'we have to turn it around.' Objective number one would be to get a bit of a winning mentality, not losing mentality," he added.

De Sa also highlighted the logistical difficulties of managing a national team made up almost entirely of players based overseas.

"And to choose a team that is 99 percent based all over Europe, that's a massive challenge," he explained.

Despite the obstacles, the technical team managed to guide Ghana to the knockout stage of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Although Ghana's campaign ended with a narrow Round of 32 defeat to Colombia, De Sa believes the team made significant progress in a short period by changing the mentality of the players and making them competitive on the world stage.

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