The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has shortlisted three coaches to take over the Black Stars job: Carlos Queiroz, Fernando Santos, and Paulo Bento, all Portuguese nationals with extensive international experience .
Reports from multiple sources indicates that the Ghana Football Association have shortlisted these three coaches from the over 600 that applied for the vacant Black stars Job after a meeting by the Ghana Football Association.
The reports also indicates that the Ghana Football Association is working on a short term contact aimed at the world cup and the performance at the world cup will determined whether the coach will be confirmed as the permanent coach of the Black stars or not.
A look at the coaching careers of these experiences Portuguese:
*Paulo Bento*
Paulo Bento led the Portugal national team into the European Championship semi finals in 2012.He also qualified and led the team to the 2014 FIFA world cup but they failed to qualify from the group.
He was appointed as the coach of south Korea,helping them to qualify for the 2018 world cup but left after poor performance .He was recently sacked by United Arab Emirates after failing to qualify for the 2026 FIFA world cup.
*Carlos Queiroz*
Carlos Queiroz ,the former Assistant to Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United has a very good record at the national level after serving as the coach of Iran for so many years and qualifying the country to three different world cups.
He is also the former coach of countries such as Portugal,Egypt, ,South Africa Qatar etc.
*Fernando Santos*
The most successful coach among the three is Fernando Santos who led Greece to the 2010 world cup is also in contention.
He also led Portugal to a historic moments when they won the European Championship in 2016 and the Nations League in 2019.
He led Portugal to the 2022 world cup and was eliminated by Morocco in the quarter final.He also had a stint with the Polish National team but was sacked.
All these three coaches have national team and world cup experience which could be the reason why they have been shortlisted .The Ghana football Association president Kurt Okraku promised the Ghanaians that the next Black Stars Coach to be appointed will be a coach that matches the quality of the Black Stars .The big question is for Ghanaians to answer whether these shortlisted coaches really have that quality .
The Ghana Football Association is expected to take the final decision soon in consultation with the government.
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