George Boateng’s exceptional leadership qualities puts him in pole position to become Ghana’s next coach
Ghanaians are calling for the head of Serbian trainer Milovan Rajevac and replaced with George Boateng as head coach of the Ghana national team following the Black Stars’ shambolic performance at the 2021 AFCON tournament in Cameroon.
The Ghanaian government, through the Ministry of Youth and Sports, has directed the Ghana Football Association to review the technical team following a marathon meeting on Friday.
Factually speaking, the problems of the Black Stars are multi-faceted and would require deeper solutions springing from strategic long-term, medium-term, and short-term plannings.
But, one of the areas that require immediate address and attention is leadership in the dressing room. It is obvious that one of the key missing elements at the core of the Black Stars is leadership in the dressing room.
You speak to every world-class football administrator, one of the most important ingredients they look out for when hiring a manager is the ability to control the dressing room. The kind of leadership qualities you offer.
From news behind the scenes in Cameroon, Milovan Rajevac’s presence in the dressing room was zilch. The Serbian failed to offer the badly-needed kind of leadership in the Black Stars.
From James Kwasi Appiah to Charles Akonnor, there has been a leadership crisis at the senior national team.
With the third round of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification series up against Nigeria in March, a leader who has the toughness to cut the egos within the Black Stars’ playing body and properly offer quality leadership is exactly what the team needs at this moment.
Aston Villa U23 head coach George Boateng is not a square peck in a round hole like the case of Milovan Rajevac. Boateng, capped 4 times by the Netherlands at senior level, is the right fix for the Black Stars. Boateng has a proven track record as a leader having captained two English Premier League clubs. The English Premier League is the strongest league in the world based on its strong marketing tenets, aggressive nature, and top-quality stars. It is easy to count the number of Black-African/Europeans who have captained clubs in the Premier League. But, Boateng having done this twice at two different clubs – Hull City and Middlesbrough proves that right from the field of play as a player, the Nkawkaw-born has demonstrated his leadership qualities.
There is a myth surrounding the managerial career of the 46-year-old. Yes, it is true that the experience of the former Feyenoord star is largely at the youth level. Since cutting his teeth in his coaching career at Kelantan FA in Malaysia where he managed former TSG Hoffenheim forward Prince Tagoe, Boateng began grassroots coaching at Blackburn Rovers U13 where he used science to impart knowledge on Gen Z kids and the success he achieved in his transition as an ambitious Gen X manager teaching kids from two-generation leaps was awesome.
Following his enormous success at Blackburn during his one-season spell, he was snapped up by his former club Aston Villa where he was first entrusted with the U18 team before earning a meteoric rise in the order rank as he was promoted to head coach at the U23s.
Boateng was also at Newcastle United in the Premier League as an assistant to Steve McClaren where he trained players like Wijnaldum, Jonjo Shelvey, Fabricio Coloccini, Alexander Mitrovic, and others.
As a coach, Boateng has a big vision for Ghana football as he is ready to implement a whole new structure with the technical policy of the football association due to his understanding of the Dutch structure and style of play as well as the English style of play. His close relationship with the current England manager Gareth Southgate, Steve McLaren, and current Holland head coach Louie van Gaal is one of his mentors who will help reposition the Black Stars as a top African footballing nation.
During Ghana’s recent participation at the 2021 AFCON, the Black Stars presented one of the youngest squads at the tournament. This shows, that the team needs to experience a manager with the required patience and perspicacity to nurture them into becoming champions.
Carney Chukwuemeka, Jaden Bidace, Jacob Ramsey, Aaron Ramsey, and Cameron Archer are all first-team players at Aston Villa who have passed through the hands of Boateng.
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Source: Sports
