Assistant coach, George Boateng, has revealed he willingly left his role as Aston Villa U-23 coach to focus on the Black Stars job.
The 46-year-old, who was part of the technical team that masterminded Ghana’s qualification to the 2022 World Cup, left his job with the Premier League last month.
Boateng was appointed together with Otto Addo, Chris Hughton, and Didi Dramani for the World Cup playoffs against Nigeria in March.
Speaking to Joy Sports in an interview, Boateng said he decided to quit his role with Villa and focus solely on the Black Stars with the World Cup fast approaching.
“It is not that I was forced to leave the [Villa U-23] job but you have to respect the club as well and the discussion was always between what’s the best thing for the club, what’s the best thing for the coach [George Boateng] and what is the best thing overall moving forward for me.
“I was adamant that I want to do the job with Ghana. I wanted and felt it is the right decision to stay with Ghana and help. Then you come to the conclusion that both jobs are full-time and both jobs demand a lot of time and being the person that I am, I don’t like to lack in any department of what I do and what I undertake,” he added.
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According to him, choosing Ghana over the Villa job is going to be the best decision in the long term.
“To be fully committed I had to make a decision and when I look at the overall picture, to me, it was the best decision for the club because when I am away every time on international duty, especially [knowing] the World Cup could be anything from three to six weeks,” he noted.
“And to be away from the role that I am doing, the club said that it is almost impossible because I will be missed and it’s not like you can replace somebody who knows the curriculum, who knows the program, and more importantly, who has been working with the players for the last three seasons.
“Then we both decided that it was best for me to resign from one of my duties which will be the AV one and prolong my career with Ghana going forward,” he added.
Boateng is currently in camp with the Black Stars, who will play Brazil in France on Friday, September 23.