Bernhard Lippert: New Ghana technical director outlines plans

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The football association recruit sheds light on his ambitions for the West African nation

New Ghana technical director Benhard Lippert believes early talent identification will go a long way to improve the nation's football fortunes.

The German was appointed by the Ghana Football Association (GFA) earlier this month, taking over from Francis Oti Akenteng who exited the job in March.

Lippert first linked up with Ghana's team when they recently played Mali and Qatar in international friendlies in Turkey.

"There are lots of departments which have to be developed and it starts with children in the school [grassroots football] which must be better organised," Lippert said, as reported by the GFA official website.

"Football in schools or festivals should be able to produce the best talents between 10 and 14 years.

"We need early talent identification and so we have to define the most talented children within this age and train them in a holistic way to find out the best talent.

"We have to also write down programs for all youth national teams to develop them step by step and if we follow this way, I am sure we will be successful."

Until his Ghana appointment, Lippert was technical trainer of the Associations of Football Federations of Azerbaijan (AFFA), a role he has held since 2008.

He was once coach of German Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt.

"Football is not so difficult; it is the same everywhere but we only have different kinds of organisations, structures and different kinds of culture, education which is very important to develop a country’s football," Lippert added.

"We have to find out the DNA of this country, which means we have to develop our national football philosophy which I cannot decide alone.

"So I need the help of the people in this country to define the DNA of the country and then follow a structured way through which youth football will be organized and bring it through the youth national teams to the top."

The 58-year-old, who also coaches Azerbaijan’s national U17, U19 and U21 teams during his 12-year stay, has previously also had coaching spells with German football giants Bayern Munich and English side Leeds United.

2020-10-24 23:00:16

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