Otto Addo on qualifying campaign, missing out on the AFCON and assembling a young squad: Transcript

Our head Coach Otto Addo faced the media at the Conference room of the Accra Sports stadium on Sunday ahead of the final round of matches in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers. The Black Stars aim to beat Niger on Monday to finish third in Group F after failing to grab one of the tickets for next year’s tournament in Morocco.

Otto Addo takes us through the qualifying campaign, challenges, need for support to turn things around and assembling a young squad for the future.

Here is what he had to say:

On Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign

To sum it all up, everybody is disappointed. I’m disappointed. I knew before I took the job that it was going to be very, very difficult because surely the last six, seven, eight years were very, very difficult for the Ghana Football Association, for Ghana as a country. And I knew it also before I took over to qualify for the World Cup. And so things are always on the edge, and surely I know we could have done better. I think we didn't only lose it at the last game in Angola, the boys tried, and we had a lot of new players coming in, and they haven't played together.

On challenges

We had just a short time to train. So it’s been very, very difficult circumstances with a lot of injuries. But, yeah, I think as I said before, we lost in a session in our home games where we actually played well, but we didn't score goals. And I think that was, I think, crucial in all for not qualifying. This is football sometimes. I know it's very, very difficult for everybody to accept. But we have to move forward. That's the only way which will help us. And anybody who wants Ghana to succeed has to go forward now, 100%. If we want to blame it now on players who will play tomorrow, out of those 22, maybe 15, 16 have not played African qualifiers before. And to be, let's say, harsh on them wouldn't make any sense.

On new players making good use of opportunity

I think it's a good chance now for a lot of players to show themselves. And hopefully they will use the chance. And we have seen, I think, some players who used these chances in the last game. And I hope that more players will use this chance. And we're looking forward to the game tomorrow, to beat Niger, not to end up last.

On beating Niger for pride after failing to qualify

We want to beat them to at least, for our honour, get the third place. And this is what we're working for. I know it's very, very difficult. But surely, again, we need the support. And if any one of us wants to make Ghana better, the players need support. That's all I can say. Meanwhile, I understand that people are disappointed, maybe angry. I was also disappointed, but surely we have to move on now. We have to move on, and we have to do our best to prepare for the World Cup qualifiers now. And it starts tomorrow.

On what being a hero two years ago after taking Ghana to the World and being described as a failure after AFCON fiasco

I think this is part of the job. I knew what I was about to expect when I took the job. This is part of the job. It's kind of normal. I grew up in Germany, in an environment with a lot of white people, a lot of racists, a lot of hatred. For me, I went through a lot in my life. Even to be a professional football player, I worked a lot. It was the same as a coach. As a coach, in Germany, I'm the only black person in the whole system there, as a coach. I always have to fight my way through. It doesn't affect me, to be honest. I went through so much. I know where I'm coming from. For me, it's all about protecting the players. It's all about the players, for them to get better, for them to learn all of these things.

On what happened to the team in the qualifiers

I think the base in these qualifiers is the home games. I wish we would have played bad, but we won in the end. To be honest, we played well. We were lacking scoring goals. I think it's a complex thing. It's maybe more psychological. Surely, there was a lot of hatred coming from outside against me, against the team. I can just assure you that I think in all, sometimes it affects the players. We need support, that's all, if all of you want Ghana to win. We are very down now. If you don't want us to go to the World Cup, then you can continue, and then you can hammer on us. But if you really want us to go to the World Cup, you need to support us, that's all I can say.

On whether he thinks he is the man for the job as head coach

I don't like to speak about myself, like I'm the best or whatsoever. It's not my nature, you know. People can judge me, and surely most of the people will judge me by the results, which were not good. But I have friends, I have mentors. I don't know if you know, but I trained under Mathias Sammer. I was trained by Jurgen Klopp club. I trained, or I was assistant to Edin Tezic when he was the Dortmund head coach. And surely we have chats. And for me, this is relevant. If they say this or that, they are also critical of some things, and I understand this, but this has much more value. If I speak to your club and say this or that, If I send you maybe some scenes, then somebody from anywhere is saying, oh, blah, blah, blah, this is bad. I try to get better every day, but I can assure you that I also question some games. But to be honest, like I said, especially the home games, we played well, but we didn't score, and this was a missing point.

On not having enough to prepare for games

It's very, very difficult at the national level because you don't just have three days. Now we have two days of training and then to play again and to get things together, get things done. And sometimes in football, you can do everything right. If you don't score, you lose. It's like that. And sometimes you play bad, you win. Sometimes you play good, you lose. It's like that. And yeah, I have to accept it. At the end, like I said, the results should have been better, much better. Also, let's say the away game in Niger was also crucial. I don't think the last game was the turning point after we drew, I mean, surely at the end it was crucial also. We could have moved things in our favor If we would had won, we could have had the chance to win. But I think we lost it, especially in the home games. This is the base of everything to win these games and build points. Yes.

On giving more opportunities to local players after Razak Simpson’s performance against Angola

So for me, again, it's not about local players or non-local players. It's about performance. And you're right, he did well. I saw him at Nations. I've been going around in Ghana to watch matches. And he's one of the players which caught my eye. And I think he justified it in the last game and I hope he will continue.

On choosing goals and wins over performance

In our home games we tend to play more and more and don't do any goals. Henceforth, I really see more of not necessarily focusing on playing the best of football but getting the win. Yeah, It's part of my philosophy to play good football. And I think it's how I see the Ghanaian footballers. I want them to have joy. I want them to be in a constructive situation, where they feel well, where they feel at home. And I think if you watch the home games, you saw it. It's just the end product. And sometimes it's just little margins, you know. It's like the ball is going to the post, whether it's a thing about Djiku's header, inside or outside.. Sometimes, even in away games, when we played against Sudan, we scored a regular goal and it was not given. So these are little things which are missing but which are very decisive which can turn the whole story, or could have turned the whole story around. But at the end, this is football. This is football and this is what happens and we have to learn out of this. We have to do better. Especially then also when we score, we have to work on our defence as well, not to concede. At the zero at least we stand and we turn on. Yeah, so there's enough space for the group.

On being defensive as a team

You can see more attacking football instead of us sitting back trying to prevent our opponent from getting our pass. Yeah, but okay. Did you see the home game we had against Sudan. Yeah, I did. Was it attacking football or defensive football. From what I saw, it was more of a balance. We had 16 corners, they had one. We had, I don't know how many shots were good, we had a lot of chances. Like, if you say when we played at Mali, okay, it was more defensive, but we were leading 1-0 and completely different approach. Sometimes, t comes also with the results, you know. Also, Angola, we played at home, we created a lot of chances, and the ball possession was like 60 to 40 or something. So, for me, it was more offensive, but maybe, I don't know. I don't know how we see it, so I'm really surprised.

On refereeing in the qualifying especially against Angola

The performance of the referee. The last game. Yes, the last game. Because I saw seven chances where our players were going down in almost every 50-50 chances where it should have been our advantage but we made a foul and had to leave out and it was a tremendous foul. It's difficult. I mean, if the referee was okay, I've seen lots of referees do things and we know, know like, for example, the penalty against us he literally lifted up his leg before and he didn't touch it. So, if it would be bad, I don't think he would pretend but at the end, also.

On approach for the game

Top. We want to win and that remains our focus.

On injuries and its impact

First of all, we have a lot of injured players. And it's not only us, it's also other national teams, it's also a lot of clubs, like my former club, they have like ten injured players. So it's quite difficult because they have a lot of games with the players and, yeah, my prayers are with those who are injured. Especially, Fatawu it's going to be I think a very serious injury. I hope not, but it could be. And my prayers are with him. And in this situation, I would also like to thank everybody who's coming, committed to play, and doing his best for his country so that he will make a very, very good result. And showing up for a few new players to come to show themselves. And I can't tell you more about their approach because surely I don't want to compare our opponents on how we want to play.

On mindset going into the game

But the match is always the same, I mean, I don't think there is someone, even when we play a tournament, I want to win, there is no way I will just go and play and I want to lose. But the mindset is always about winning, it's always about doing the best and if you want to give positive examples, you have to be mentioned as excellent or man enough. This is what we want to see, to play out all their hearts. Players have problems before, they couldn't train the whole week but they came to play. This is what we want to see, to die for the country. Now, surely their problems are worse after the game, they can't play. I want people to know that it's not always like, oh, this guy doesn't want to play.

On singling out medical team for praises

They had problems before, big problems, but our medical team worked day and night, we should have, we would have liked to see how they worked on them and congratulate them and also thank them for making it happen for the players to play. There are always some examples, it's not always easy for them, but they are fabulous.

On Semenyo not coming despite playing for Bournemouth the weekend after the qualifiers

If we are not allowed, it's a law; I'm not allowed to give you specific information about that. We got a doctor’s report, our doctors are not allowed to talk about it, and I’m not allowed to talk about it. But if somebody's injured, he's injured, there's nothing I can do.

On what sort of team should we look out for in future

Like I said before, for me, the players are one. So I will call on the best in my view, who are ready to play this game. That's all. If they're local players or non-local, for me it doesn't matter.

GFA COMMUNICATIONS