Highly-tipped to become the next substantive coach of the Ghana senior national team, former Premier League manager Chris Hughton is to begin with a Technical Advisor role.
The Ghana Football Association (GFA), after a meeting of its Executive Council on Wednesday, announced reconstituting the technical team of the Black Stars specifically for the upcoming Fifa World Cup playoffs against the Super Eagles of Nigeria later in March.
As part of the appointments made, Hughton the ex-Newcastle United and Brighton boss has been given the role of providing expert knowledge and guidance to the caretaker coach Otto Addo and his assistants George Boateng and Mas-ud Didi Dramani for the two games.
The position became vacant a few weeks ago after Serbian Milovan Rajevac got sacked for a disastrous campaign at the just-ended 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in Cameroon.
Otto Addo – who was not at the Afcon – has since been the preferred choice of the GFA on an interim basis due to his knowledge of the current Black Stars setup after working under Rajevac in recent months.
It is understood that the GFA’s decision to hand Hughton the Technical Advisor role is also to afford the 63-year-old Irish-Ghanaian the chance to know the team before taking up the head coach position after the games against Nigeria.
A publication on the GFA website regarding the interim appointments reads:
“Former Newcastle United and Brighton and Hove Albion manager Chris Hughton has been appointed as Technical Advisor to the newly constituted Black Stars Technical team led by Otto Addo.
“Other members of the new Technical team include George Boateng and Mas-Ud Didi Dramani. The 63- year old will provide Technical advice to the three-man team for next month’s FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 play-off match against Nigeria.
“The Executive Council of the Ghana Football Association took the decision at a meeting held in Accra on Wednesday, February 9, 2022. Otto Addo, a former Ghana player is currently the Assistant Coach of German Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund – he boasts of about 13 years of Coaching experience that dates back to 2009 when he first took up the job of an Assistant Coach at Hamburger SV.
“The 46-year old previously worked as a scout for the Black Stars in 2013 prior to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil and the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea.
“The four-man team has been put together to take charge of the two matches against rivals Nigeria.”
The Black Stars will take on the Super Eagles at the Cape Coast stadium on March 24 before travelling to Nigeria for the 2nd leg at the Abuja Sports stadium on Sunday, March 27, 2022.”
