Former Austria coach Josef Hickersberger and German Ralf Zumdick are the latest men to be linked with the vacant Black Stars job as a growing list of applicants from Europe line up, hoping to get the nod from the Ghana Football Association.
However, in spite of the GFA’s preference for a topclass foreign coach, the Deputy Minister of Education, Science and Sports (MoESS), Mr Osei Bonsu Amoah, has dropped the strongest possible hint yet that the appointment of Claude Le Roy’s successor could delay because of the astronomical salary being demanded by the applicants.
Notwithstanding the commitment of the Stars’ headline sponsor and the government to offer improved remuneration to attract top coaches, Mr Amoah noted that the government was not in a position to meet the demands of applicants who were quoting monthly salaries of between $80,000 and $200,000.
Le Roy, whose contract was terminated last May, earned $30,000 a month.
Hickersberger, who resigned as Austrian manager last month after a disastrous Euro 2008 campaign by the co-host, is reportedly being favoured by the Stars kit sponsors, Puma, who are also the official kit sponsor of the Austrian team.
A former Austrian international who featured for his country in the 1978 FIFA World Cup, 60-year-old Hickersberger, and famed for his controversial sending off with German coach Joachim Low in their Euro 2008 group game, will cost Ghana nothing less than $80,000 a month, a figure quite bigger than what the GFA and MoESS are ready to invest in the next national coach.
His managerial credentials include handling Austria at the 1990 FIFA World Cup, handling German Bundesliga side Fortuna Dusseldorf in 1991 and a spell in the Middle East where he coached the Bahrain national side and clubs like Al Ahli, Al Shaab, Al Wasl.
Three years ago he led Rapid Vienna to win the Austrian Bundesliga title and to the group stage of the UEFA Champions League in 2006.
Zumdick is not new to Ghana football, not least the Black Stars. It was the German tactician who got Ghana’s successful World Cup campaign to a flying start during his brief tenure in 2003.
He led the Ghanaian team which included players like Stephen Appiah, John Mensah, Michael Essien, and gave Asamoah Gyan his Black Stars debut in a 5-0 win over Somalia in a World Cup preliminary round qualifier in Accra.
A former coach of Kumasi Asante Kotoko and King Faisal, 50-year-old Zumdick quit the Stars and returned home to become assistant coach of Hamburg SV and is currently the assistant coach of Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund.
He was manager of VfL Bochum in the 2000/2001 season.
Reports indicate the German coach has formally written to the Football Association since he meets their criteria of UEFA license B.
Until the duo of Hickersberger and Zumdick joined the list of candidates, the GFA had shortlisted three European coaches for the top job.
The FA search committee have been tight-lipped over their possible choice, but names like Serbian Vladimir Petrovic and German Klaus Topmoller have been liked to the job at different times.
The GFA, though, has promised to name a new coach before the resumpuon of the 2010 Nations Cup and FIFA World Cup qualifiers in September.
Story by Maurice Quansah
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