Black Stars vacant job: What Asamoah Gyan, three former players have said

Former Black Stars skipper, Asamoah Gyan along with three other ex-Black Stars players have shared their thoughts on the vacant Black Stars coaching role.

Mohammed Polo, Ntow Gyan, and Kwesi Appiah are the other three, who have all had their say regarding the vacancy.

The Ghana Football Association (GFA) is yet to appoint a new technical team for the Black Stars since the Otto Addo-led technical team stepped down from their roles in December 2022.

While Gyan, Polo, and Ntow shared their thought on who the ideal manager for the Black Stars should be, Kwasi Appiah, who is a former Black Stars coach, gave

reasons he applied for the job.

Gyan, in an interview monitored by GhanaWeb Sports, suggested that the FA appoints a manager who is experienced with strong credentials or an inexperienced manager but tactically sound.

“We need an experienced coach, someone with strong credentials…Even if he is an inexperienced coach we should be able to identify what the coach has taught the players in terms of their style of play,” he told Dan Kwaku Yeboah on YouTube.

“You can take an inexperienced coach but make sure he understands the game, someone who will make the people understand his philosophy,” he added.

He continued that the FA should appoint a firm manager who can stick to his decisions.

“Someone who can take charge, not someone who takes orders, you have to be strict and take charge of what you are doing,” Gyan added.

For his part, Mohammed Polo advised that the GFA appoints a coach who is knowledgeable about Ghana football.

“Recent coaches have refused to go by our style and that is affecting us. They have brought their style leaving ours behind.

“Going forward, the Ghana FA should ensure they appoint a coach who understands our style of football. At first, people used to call us the Brazil of African football but it seems we have deviated from that style and that is not helping us as a country,” he added.

However, for Ntow Gyan, handing the job to former Brighton and Hove Albion manager Chris Hughton and maintaining personnel from the Otto Addo-led technical team would be the right call.

“We should give the job to Chris Hughton because we need a coach who can manage the players. To me, Chris Hughton and the entire technical team at the moment are the best. We should maintain them than go in for a different coach to handle the Black Stars.”

Meanwhile, Kwesi Appiah, explained that he applied for the role to change the narrative about local coaches.

“Even though I had no intention of applying for the position, I later decided to do so just to correct the wrong impression that no local coach was qualified for the Black Stars job,” he told Graphic Sports.

“All along I thought the GFA was headhunting for a new coach because I didn’t hear any announcement inviting applications from interested coaches.

“So when I heard that many foreign coaches had already applied, I also decided to apply to put it on record that local coaches also have what it takes to handle the Black Stars.”

Asamoah Gyan is Black Stars’ all-time top scorer with 51 goals. He played 109 games during his 16 years international career and holds the record for most goals by an African at the World Cup, 6.

Mohammed Polo is also a Black Stars legend. He is considered by some Ghanaians the greatest Ghanaian player of all time. The Hearts of Oak legend was a key member of the Black Stars squad that won the 1978 AFCON. He scored 20 goals in his international career.

Ntow Gyan, unlike the two aforementioned greats, established his only name at Asante Kotoko. He was mostly on the peripheral at the Black Stars. He could not make his name in the national team as he did with Kotoko.

Whereas, Kwesi Appiah is both a club and national team legend. He played for Kotoko and won many laurels including their last CAF Champions League trophy in 1983.

Kwasi Appiah was also a member of the squad that won Ghana’s last AFCON in 1982 in Libya. He has managed Black Stars in two stints. The former Kotoko defender became the first local coach to qualify Ghana for the World Cup.