The Ghana Football Association (GFA) is on the verge of naming Serbian trainer Milovan Rajevac as the new coach of thier national team for his second stint with the Black Stars, GHANAsoccernet.com can exclusively report, confirming our revelation the day Charles Akonnor was sacked.
On Monday, the GFA sacked Akonnor citing the unimpressive showing of the Black Stars and minutes later Ghana's leading football news outfit revealed that Rajevac was leading the race to land the ojb.
Now the three-man committee, tasked with selecting a new coach for the Black Stars, has agreed to hand the experienced Serbian the mandate to return to coach the Black Stars after his heroics with the national team at the 2010 World Cup.
With the 72-hour deadline given to the committee, it has decided to narrow down on 'Milo' for various reasons including his knowledge of the Ghanaian terrain, his strong disciplinary record and on-the-field record to at least salvage the Black Stars World Cup qualifying campaign and to take the country to the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Cameroon.
With more than 100 CVs received from coaches across the world seeking to lead the Black Stars, the committee agreed that the safest bet is to name someone familiar with the terrain and has got the potential of bringing back the glory days.
With just three days to name a new coach the committee cannot go through the laborious process of interviewing all the coaches and has decided that Rajevac has the credentials to deliver.
The only thing left is for the committee to report to the GFA Council who would in turn inform the Sports Ministry before an agreement can be reached with the coach on his salary for the next two years.
The experienced tactician will replace CK Akonnor who was dismissed last Monday following a defeat to South Africa in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers.
The GFA is convinced the former Qatar and Thailand gaffer is best cut for the head coach role considering his experience on the continent.
GHANAsoccernet exclusively reported two days ago that the Serbian trainer is the frontrunner to take over the vacant head coach role of the Black Stars.
Rajevac is expected to lead Ghana in the next World Cup qualification matches against Zimbabwe in a doubleheader next month.
Ghana are currently second in the standings after two rounds of the qualification matches of the global tournament.
The Serbian will also be tasked to lead the Black Stars to a 2021 Africa Cup of Nations triumph in Cameroon next January.
Rajevac during his first reign as Ghana's coach was named African Coach of the Year in 2010 after impressive outings at the AFCON and World Cup respectively.
The 67-year old made history by leading the Black Stars in 2010 to reach the quarterfinals at the World Cup in South Africa.
Few months earlier, he led Ghana through to the final of Ghana's participation in the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in Angola in which they fell to Egypt.
Rajevac was a coach for Ghana between 2008 and 2010.
Prior to the World Cup exploit, he first gained acclaim for leading of the injury-ravaged Black Stars side to the Afcon final, which was a surprise to many.
The squad of 23 players included seven players who were part of the Ghana team that won the Fifa U20 World Cup a year before.
The young Black Stars side held their opponents in the final match game against Egypt up to the 85th minute, when substitution Mohamed Nagy 'Gedo' snatched an incredible match-winner in the favour of the Pharaohs.
In the World Cup, Ghana came quite close to becoming first African nation to make it to the semi-finals, when they missed a penalty in the last minute of the quarter-final match against Uruguay.
Asamoah Gyan's strike hit the crossbar in what could have been the match-winner and thus forcing the game to an extra shoot-out in which the Black Stars ended on the losing side.
Rajevac quit his job as Ghana coach two months after the World Cup heroics, taking on a new job at Saudi club Al-Ahli.
He has since been able to coach the Qatari nation's national side, Slovenian club Rudar Velenje and the national team of Algeria as well as Thailand.
By: Nuhu Adams