GFA shortlist 4 Foreign Coaches

The Ghana Football Association has narrowed its search for a long term successor to Claude LeRoy to four coaches including German, Klaus Toppmoller according to GFA president Kwesi Nyantekyie.

The other names in the frame are Serbians Illia Petkovic and Ljupko Petrovic as well as the Croatian Branko Ivankovic.

The GFA has put Sellas Tetteh in temporary charge of the side for the four 2010 world cup qualifiers in June but say they hope to name the new man by the time Ghana completes those games.

Toppmoller’s achievements in taking Bayer Leverkusen to the champions league finals of 2003 will make him odds on favourite for the job but KickOffGhana.com understands that the asking salaries of the coaches will also play a key role in determining who gets the job.

The 62-year old Petkovic represented the former Yugoslavia at international level as a player before managing Serbia and Montenegro between at the turn of the new century after the country’s poor showing at EURO 2000.

Ljupko Petrovic also a former player guided Red Stars Belgrade to the 1991 European Cup win over Abedi Pele’s Olympic Marseille and is currently in charge of is currently in charge of OFK Belgrade.

The 61-year old has also coaches Espanyol on Spain and Levski Sofia of Bulgaria.

The Croatian Branko Ivankovic currently handles Dynamo Zagrab after spells as head coach of Iran at the 2006 World Cup and assistant for the Croatian national team during their sensational run at the 1998 World Cup.

His most notable achievement lately was leading Dynamo Zagreb to the 2007 Double without losing a single competitive game.