Local coaches must up their game to take over from Milovan – Sports pundit

Sports analyst, Kojo Addae-Mensah, has urged Ghanaian football coaches to up their game so they take over when newly appointed senior men’s national team coach Milovan Rajevac’s two-year contract is up.

Based on anecdotal evidence, the former columnist of Kotoko Express said that the current Ghanaian coaches are not as strong as previous coaches to take up the position.

Mr Addae-Mensah said even though he is disappointed in the decision of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) in appointing another foreign coach, he said he has no choice but to support the decision.

“It is still disappointing that at the helm is not a Ghanaian. But it’s not water under the bridge. And we need to move on. Just hoping that Milo will probably be the last foreign coach that we get,” he told host Samson Lardy Anyenini on Newsfile, Saturday.

His comments come at the back of the reappointment of Milovan Rajevac as head coach of the men’s senior national football team, the Black Stars.

The Serbian returns after 11 years after he left the job. He has signed a two-year deal. His first assignment is a double world cup qualifier against Zimbabwe.

Milovan is expected to work alongside Otto Addo as his first assistant.

But it is unclear who will be his second assistant as Legon Cities head coach Maxwell Konadu and head of football at Right to Dream Academy, Masud Didi Dramani, are all considered for the role as reported earlier by Joy Sports.

Mr Addae-Mensah also urged all current footballers of the national team to pursue coaching courses to have a competitive advantage in the coaching market.

He said while these footballers are playing and earning “good money”, they should spend some of that money enrolling into coaching school at the UEFA to earn their coaching license.

“The Pro [licence] is the ultimate. But even if they have UEFA A Licence, it would be good enough to position them to take advantage when the opportunity arises.”

He said Ghanaian footballers should be passionate about upping their game so that when Milovan Rajevac’s tenure is up, the Ghana Football Association (GFA) would have strong enough local coaches as substitutes.

“And I’d like to use this opportunity again to talk to our local coaches. Honestly also to players, especially those who are still actively playing, if they harbour any ambitions of being coaches not to make it an afterthought.”