The 2015 Cup of African Nations is now mere days away, with the Black Stars secluded in Seville, Spain; preparing to make their umpteenth onslaught on the rest of Africa for that ever elusive fifth continental title.
Kwesi Appiah had a mixed two years in charge of the side, the high being the impressive world cup qualifying campaign that saw the team making it to Brazil without barely breaking a sweat; culminating in the 6-1 demolition of everyone’s favourite Egypt in Kumasi.
The low was definitely the campaign in Brazil, Ghana marking her poorest performance on the world stage, a disunited team plagued by issues both on and off the field. Brazil 2014 concluded with every Ghanaian losing a bit of the little prestige we have managed to garner on the world stage due to the disgraceful conduct of the Stars, so Kwesi Appiah was let go.
In his place was appointed the Israeli Avram Grant, 59 year old former manager of Chelsea, Partizan Belgrade, Portsmouth, West Ham, and his home nation as well as both Maccabi clubs.
He’s quite a well travelled coach as his resume shows, and has had moderate success throughout his career. He was technical head at Chelsea for a while, before being handed the reins after the departure of the ever controversial Jose Mourinho in 2007. He led the Blues to the UEFA Champions League final, where they lost on penalties to Manchester United. He also led them to second place in both the league and the league cup, but the trophy hungry Roman Abramovich got rid of him at the end of the season.
That was the highest point of a career spanning decades, as it was during that year at Chelsea that he gained worldwide recognition. On the flip side, he led both Portsmouth and West Ham United to relegation from the English Premier League. There were mitigating factors, surely, but he was in charge during that time, thus bears if not full, at least most of the responsibility.