Former Black Stars head coach, Otto Addo, says African coaches had an outstanding impact on football at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
For the first time in history, all five African teams at the Mundial had coaches who hailed from the continent.
Otto Addo (Ghana), Aliou Cisse (Senegal), Rigobert Song (Cameroon), Jalel Kadri (Tunisia) and Walid Regragui were in charge in Qatar with the latter ensuring that the Atlas Lions became the first African country to reach the semifinal of the World Cup.
In an interview with Forbes, Addo said the World Cup, “opened a lot of eyes because people saw African and Asian teams can compete.
“I think you could see the impact of the (African) coaches being connected to the country. Also, tactically the teams were well prepared,” he said.
“It (sends) the message to create, not only your own players, but taking the next step to create your own coaches. And also for the federations to believe in the coaches.”
According to Addo, the performances of the native coaches should be enough to help African coaches to trust themselves.
“This hopefully inspires other coaches in Africa to believe in themselves, to grow and maybe to get a chance to represent their country,” he continued.
Otto Addo left his role as the head coach of the Black Stars following their group-stage exit from the World Cup after losing to Uruguay in their last game.