The head coach of Ghana’s national team, Milovan Rajevac, was recently fired by the Ghana Football Association (GFA) following the squad’s poor performance at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
Gernot Rohr recently unemployed Franco-German tactician, is one of these choices. The Franco-German coach was fired as coach of Nigeria’s Super Eagles in December, weeks before the start of the 2021 African Nations Cup.
Ghana is on the lookout for a replacement for the fired coach and could end up hiring Rohr, who has expressed interest in the role.
Having already managed Gabon, Niger, Burkina Faso and, most recently, Nigeria, Rohr is a coach with a lot of experience in handling African national teams. Since he took over as coach of Gabon in 2010, Rohr has only exclusively managed African national teams, which means he has a lot of experience on the continent.
The well-travelled manager has spent the better part of the last 12 years scouring Africa and familiarising himself with the terrain, which makes him a good option for Ghana to consider. Using his last job as an example, Gernot Rohr took charge of Nigeria in 2016 with Nigerian football in turmoil, similar circumstances to what Ghana are in right now. Rohr took over a team that had failed to qualify for consecutive AFCONs and with crucial World Cup Qualifiers fast approaching, it looked like a difficult situation.
But Rohr was able to turn that situation around and qualify the Super Eagles for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, swiftly followed by an appearance at the 2019 AFCON in which Nigeria finished with a bronze medal. With Ghanaian football in turmoil following that terrible Africa Cup of Nations campaign and a crucial World Cup Qualifying playoff on the horizon, hiring a man with precedent in a similar scenario is the right move.
The aforementioned World Cup Qualifying playoff for Ghana will be against the Super Eagles of Nigeria, Gernot Rohr’s most recent employers until he was fired in December 2021.
Nigeria and Ghana also share a rivalry that is as old as time itself and transcends football which gives this proposition another interesting parallel.
If Ghana appoints Nigeria’s longest- serving coach, it would give them unending bragging rights especially if he ends up being successful. If Gernot Rohr is appointed as the new national team manager for Ghana, his first game in charge of the Black Stars would be the World Cup Qualifying playoff against Nigeria.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator and a recipient of the D9112 Superstar Icon Award, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
