Agent Reacts To Black Stars Coach Story

The FIFA player agent Lucidio Ribeiro who brokered the deal between the Portuguese Mariano Jeronimo Barreto and the Ghana Football Association has said that, Ghana has been given one of the best-qualified football coaches in the world.

Speaking to GHANAWEB this evening, Alex Ribeiro a representative of Foot Elite-Intercontact Marking Sarl, the company in the centre of the deal said: “Mariano Jeronimo Barreto holds both a football coaching license and a physical trainer's licence issued by the Portuguese football federation.”

He said: “ this is the new direction of coaching in the best teams in the world. Real Madrid's Carlos Queiroz who coached the South African national team and was an assistant to Alex Ferguson at Manchester United has similar qualification to Barreto.” He added that : “ Jorge Moreno of Porto in the Portuguese league has a similar qualification.”

Alex Ribeiro who was speaking on behalf of his father Lucidio Ribeiro the FIFA player agent, admitted that: “Barreto is a physical trainer at Lokomotiv Moscow but he doubles up as an assitant coach as the Lokomotiv Moscow website reveals. He said both qualities of Barreto is the reason why Lokomotiv have described his move to Ghana as “a big loss”.

On the issue of the bust-up their company had with the national team players of Cameroun before the 2002 World Cup, Ribeiro said : “ We entered into an agreement with the FA in Cameroun to organise a match for them.We paid the FA in Cameroun its share of the match proceeeds according to the contract we signed. We were and are not responsible for the bonuses of the players.As we said before the issue of bouses for the players is the reponsibilty of the Cameroun FA.”

He revealed that a local Ghanaian coach will be sent on attachment to the national team of Portugal as the first step of their relationship with Ghana.He added that “ we will be looking for the over all restructuring of Ghana football's image by bringing in quality international friedly matches, sponsorship deals and other things to help in improving Ghana football.

Meanwhile Mariano Jeronimo Barreto is expected to arrive in Ghana next Tuesday in the company of Alex Ribeiro to announce their plans for Ghana football the confusion created by the revelation of the status of the said coach.