Afranie Returns To The Pitch

After seven years’ absence from Ghana’s topflight football, ‘coach hene’, Emmanuel Kwasi Afranie, is back as helmsman of the national under 17 team, the Black Starlets, promising to rekindle national interest in the Starlets. One of the brains behind Ghana’s only gold medal at the Italia ‘91 tournament, Afranie was given the nod over Coach Isaac ‘Opeele’ Boateng of Tema Youth, and he is expected to raise a formidable team to play his first game against Libya in August towards the African Youth Championship slated for Algeria next year. As though he had a hint of being given the job, Afranie has been touring some junior league centres secretly and has even prepared a working document to be presented to the Ghana Education service, since he expects to pick some of his players from second cycle schools. He, together with his assistant, Frimpong Manso, have hit the ground running and are to tour the Northern, Ashanti and some selected regions before June when they have tentatively planned to move to camp. A coach of many parts, Afranie led the ‘97 batch made up of skipper Godwin Attram, Owusu Afriyie, Awuley Quaye Jr and co to win silver after losing 2-1 to Brazil in the final in Egypt. And four years later, he led the Under- 20 side including John Mensah and Suley Muntari to the World Championship in Argentina where he again won silver losing only to the host in the final. On Ghana’s failure to qualify for the competition in 2001 and 2003, Afranie told the Graphic Sports that there was the need for Ghana to stamp her authority on that division to give hope to the Black Stars in future. He called for support from fellow coaches and all stake holders to make inputs to get the best materials for the nation. “It does not matter the location of the player, once I assess him and I realise he is good, he will definitely form part of my soldiers,” Afranie, who also coached the national women’s team to the World Cup in 1999 said. “Even this morning I have gone to watch two training sessions in some parts of Accra and I am sure before August, Ghana will be ready,” he said. A winner of Ghana’s fourth Nations Cup trophy as an assistant coach to Osam Duodu, Afranie believes his rich experience in the industry will be crucial in the team’s qualification to Algeria.