The Chairman of FC Nordsjaelland, Tom Vernon, has revealed that Black Stars head coach, Otto Addo, turned down the opportunity to manage the Danish top-flight club just before the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
The Right to Dream Founder said he offered the former Ghana midfielder the Nordsjaelland job, but he rejected it to focus on his role at Borussia Dortmund, where he worked as a talent development coach.
Vernon explained that the 49-year-old, who was born in Germany but played for Ghana at the international level, was an obvious candidate for the position because of his understanding of diverse cultures.
Otto Addo first took charge of the Black Stars on an interim basis for the 2022 World Cup qualifying matches against Nigeria before leading the team to the tournament proper in Qatar.
He was criticized for not taking up the Ghana job on a permanent basis.
However, according to Tom Vernon, Otto Addo first rejected the chance to coach Nordsjaelland before also opting not to take the Ghana job on a permanent basis.
“I offered him the head coach job at FCN and he said no,” Vernon said, before adding, “I tracked all of those coaches of Ghanaian heritage and monitor their careers, as well as all the local coaches.
“So Otto was always like an interesting case. And then I was thinking about FCN, I said, who will understand the European mindset and the Ghanaian mindset?
“And, you know, Denmark, border to Germany, they’re different, but some similarities. So he was just an obvious candidate.”
Addo had previously worked at Nordsjalland as assistant coach between 2016 and 2017.
You can watch part two of Fentuo Tahiru Fentuo’s conversation on the Joy News channel on Saturday, June 22, 2024, at 7:30 pm. It will be available on the Joy News YouTube channel shortly after.
Source: Adamu Benin Abdul Karim