Gives his players the direction at this World Cup: Ghana’s national coach Otto Addo.
Photo: imago/MexSport Agency
It was strange to keep coming across this World Cup coach over the past few weeks in the Bundesliga, who didn’t look like a man who is now stepping onto the big stage of world football. Otto Addo, coach of Ghana’s national team, which started the World Cup with a 2-3 defeat against Portugal on Thursday, sits in the press box at Borussia Dortmund’s home games. There he chats with the game analysts and acquaintances, not using the menu for the noble fans, but the currywurst offer for the journalists. Addo is not a guy who likes to travel around Qatar as a VVIP, a member of the “Very Very Important Person” category newly introduced for this World Cup. The 47-year-old is a man who wants to play a mediating role in this difficult tournament, the clash of cultures.
Addo finds the criticism from parts of Europe charged with indignation and characterized by an attitude of moral superiority uncomfortable. While it’s important to point out grievances in Qatar, he says, it’s “a very European perspective when you think you’re much better yourself.” The native of Hamburg with Ghanaian roots points out that “off the coast of the EU, which also includes Germany”, people die every day because they are not accepted. »And they are fleeing for economic reasons that we are partly responsible for and historically have partly caused.«
Although his team narrowly lost to Portugal, Addo is still hoping for an outsider’s tale at the World Cup. In the second group game against South Korea this Monday, Ghana must win to have progress in their own hands. Addo’s team is ranked the worst of all World Cup participants. “But that’s football and a World Cup, there’s really a lot possible, for us too,” he says. The Ghanaians play with a team without stars, the most valuable player is Athletic Bilbao’s Iñaki Williams, a Basque who has also played for Spain but has now been naturalized thanks to his family roots in Ghana. Daniel-Kofi Kyereh from Freiburg is part of the squad from the Bundesliga, as are André and Jordan Ayew, the sons of the legendary Abédi Pelé.
Basically, the team is in a phase of upheaval, which was also reflected in the historically poor performance at the Africa Cup of Nations in January. At the time, Addo was assistant coach under Milovan Rajevac, but didn’t take part in the tournament because his main job as a talent coach at BVB didn’t allow it. After the failed continental championship and the subsequent dismissal of Rajevac, however, the two playoff games in the World Cup qualification were due, the most important games in the recent history of the football nation that missed the World Cup in 2018. The federation didn’t want to sign a coach with no connection to the team, so Addo was asked. “Of course I agreed straight away,” he says, but on the condition that he doesn’t have to give up his job at BVB.
Ghana managed the playoff coup against the favored Nigerians – and Addo started preparing for the World Cup, mostly from his home office in Germany. Only at the start of the tournament did he step in with full force. After the game against South Korea, the end of the preliminary round has a very special encounter in store. At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Ghana came close to becoming the first African nation to reach a semi-final. It was 1-1 after 120 minutes when Uruguay’s Luis Suárez saved a ball that would have gone into the goal with his hand on the line. Suárez saw the red card, the Ghanaians missed the penalty and lost on penalties. Now there could be the possibility of a revenge, but Addo is only marginally concerned with this topic. Rather, he is interested in the medium-term development of African football.
For the first time at this World Cup, all five participants from Africa will be looked after by trainers with family roots in the respective country. This is great progress. Some things have actually gotten better, says Addo, “nevertheless it’s still the case that in the world you get many, many more opportunities with a white skin color than with a dark skin color”. He himself dreams of more. The fact that after the World Cup he gave up the chance to be permanent national coach in Ghana and returned to BVB does not mean that he would not like to be a permanent head coach somewhere. “I can imagine many things. I am an ambitious person who wants to get ahead and who also looks for a challenge when it arises.«
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