Soccer-Attuquayefio to coach Ghana as well as Hearts of Oak
Give local and foreign players equal opportunities-John Orlando
Accra (Greater Accra) 08 December 2001
The headcoach of the senior national team, the Black Stars, Cecil Jones Attuquayfio, has nominated Mr Kwesi Appiah, a former skipper of the Black Stars as his assistant.
Consequently Coach Attuquayfio has presented him to the Ghana Football Association (GFA) which has given its blessing to his choice.
Disclosing this to the GNA Sports in Accra on Friday, the former skipper said although he has contributed immensely to the nation's football, he least expected this high honour in the nation's football and expressed his willingness to assist the head coach to chuck victory in all their impending encounters.
Nonetheless he described his appointment as unexpected "since there are many good coaches out there.
'There are so many excellent coaches out there who I respect a lot and for me to be chosen by the head coach as his assistant is a privilege indeed, I least expected it'.
Mr Appiah said the task ahead of them is very challenging because Ghana has never qualified for the World Cup and so much is expected from them.
"What makes it more complex is combining the world cup qualifier with the African Cup of Nations".
He said problems associated with the country's football are not new to him and he is prepared to defy all odds and work hard to help the Stars to qualify for the World Cup and the African Cup of Nations.
Coach Attuquayfio later introduced Kwesi to the team at their training session and the players expressed happiness and satisfaction with the choice and pledged their support for him.
Kwesi said before his appointment he had planned going to London for a higher grade course in coaching.
The new assistant coach was a former skipper of Kumasi Asante Kotoko and the Black Stars.
He is yet to receive his appointment letter.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 08 January 2001
Newly appointed Ghanaian national coach Cecil Jones Attuquayefio is to coach his former club and Ghanaian champions, Accra Hearts of Oak, alongside his present schedule for two major international events this year.
Attuquayefio, 56, took Hearts to victory in the African Champions League against Esperance of Tunis last month and has signed a four-year contract with the national side.
He will remain head coach of Hearts for next month's African Super Cup against Egyptian club Zamalek and the FIFA World Club Championship in Spain in July.
"Attuquayefio has proven by Hearts of Oak's continental success that he is among the he best coaches in Africa, if not the best," Worlanyo Agra, General Secretary of the Ghana
Football Association (GFA), told Reuters late on Friday.
"We took that into consideration and also the fact that most of the country's major successes were chalked up under indigenous coaches," he added.
The appointment of the former Ghana international, a member of Ghana's triumphant African Nations team in 1965, ends a six-month search for a replacement for Italian Giuseppe Dossena, whose contract ran out last July.
Attuquayefio's first matches will be an African Cup qualifier against Democratic Republic of Congo in Kinshasa on January 14 and a World Cup qualifier in Accra against Liberia on January 28.
Ghana, who have won the African Nations Cup four times, have never qualified for the World Cup finals.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 08 January 2001
The newly appointed Coach of the senior national team, the Black Stars, Sir Cecil Jones Attuquayefio has been urged to give the local players in his squad equal opportunities as their foreign-based counterparts to inject some new sense of confidence into the local game.
Speaking to the GNA, John Orlando a former Great Olympics player and a member of Nigeria's Super Eagles African Cup winning squad in 1980 said most of the local players are at the acme of their career's and when given the needed exposure would outshine their foreign counterparts.
"Some of our professionals are warming benches in their various teams in Europe and it would not be morally just for local players, playing regularly to be sidelined for such players"
John Orlando was unknown before leaving Ghana for Nigeria where his talent blossomed into a big stardom and he featured alongside fellow Ghanaian Leotis Boateng in his adopted country's maiden triumph in the Nations Cup said the appointment of Jones is a sign of great things in stock for Ghanaian soccer since virtually everything won in our soccer was been done with indigenous coaches at the helm.
"For the country to benefit fully from Jones there should be " a hands off" approach in terms of interference from all for him to have the confidence and courage to take decisions he deems most appropriate"
He continued that Jones should also be allowed to select his own working team in-order to choose people he believes and can trust at any time when he calls on them.
Orlando also stressed on the need for Jones to regularly attend refresher courses to keep him abreast with the latest trends in the game, since soccer is now very dynamic.
"To the players especially the foreign based ones, it is important that they observe the same sense discipline and respect that they give to their club coaches because the locals would be watching them and would use them as yard sticks."
John Orlando whose team mates in Ghana were the likes of Hon ET Mensah, former Minister of Youth and Sports when he played for Hearts, Joe Darkota at All Blacks and Awuley Quaye at Olympics has since obtained a coaching certificate in Britain after quitting the game in 1986 and now domiciles in the United States where he coaches.
He said his company; Coaching Excellence, which trains from Juvenile to semi professional teams is willing to help any of the national teams with the provision of equipment for training and also organise friendly trail matches in the States for the teams.
"I would also put my services at the disposal of the national team for free when ever in-town to help in the shaping of the new Black Stars since the task of qualifying the team to the world cup for the first is everybody's responsibility which should not be left at the door steps of Jones alone.
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