On Monday October 5, the Ghana Football Association made public the name of the chosen one as the country’s football governing body’s Technical Director.

The announcement brought to an end an over 3 months’ exercise in finding the successor to the man who previously held the role; Francis Oti Akenteng.

The veteran Ghanaian technical brain had served for over a decade and the general belief echoing through the top brass to the rank and file of Ghana Football was that a new face and more necessarily a new direction was needed.

After a careful process of inviting applications, shortlisting preferred candidates and interviewing them, the Ghana FA settled on the experienced German tactician, Bernhard Lippert.

But apart from being German, just who exactly is Bernhard Lippert and what does he bring to the table; especially at a time where a new direction for Ghana Football is very much needed.

The article will try to tackle the above asked questions and create the clearest impression of what lies ahead for Ghana Football with the German on board.

Bernhard Lippert is a 58 year old German Football Coach, born on March 12, 1963. He has vast experience in coaching and specialises in youth football development.

Lippert speaks Deutsche, English and Spanish and integrating into an English dominant terrain like Ghana should certainly not be a cause for worry.

Not really a successful footballer during his days, Lippert; a UEFA Pro License holder since 1997, has fared way better in his career path as a Coach, having had stints with the likes of Leeds United, Deportivo La Coruna and the German duo of Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayern Munich.

He specializes in youth football development and has done immensely well in this aspect of the game.

What he’s likely to do for Ghana;

The track record of the new Technical Director of Ghana Football speaks volumes of how much of a benefit he will be to the youth/juvenile sector.

Interestingly, this is an aspect of our game that needs much working on as regards repositioning, restrategising and reorganising in a bid to make vibrant again a sector that once brought the country much success in football.

Ghana’s Juvenile sector has yearned for much attention and support after several years of near-neglect. The juvenile sector is choked and very much disorganised.

Therefore, the appointment of a new Technical Director is to forsee the revamping of the sector.

The structure of juvenile football needs to be framed strategically with clubs well organised.

Lippert has done a similar project at both club and national level to much success.

At Eintracht Frankfurt he once served as a Youth Team Head Coach and played key roles in the training and development of talents mot just for Frankfurt’s senior team, but for the German football league.

It is therefore not surprising that, with his guidance and tranining, he helped more than 20 players in the youth system of the club to
become regular players in the Bundesliga team.

Some notable names include Jermaine Jones (USA national team), Alexander Schur (former team captain Eintracht
Frankfurt), Uwe Bindewald, Oka Nikolov (Goalkeeper of the Macedonian National Team), and Albert Streit.

He has the enviable feat of being the person to train and develop the German Bundesliga’s first Chinese player Yang Chen (Eintracht Frankfurt 1998 – 2002).

Unearthing and nurturing of talents are Lippert’s hallmark and making Ghana Football benefit is definitely assured.

To add to his credentials at club level, Lippert also achieved great success with the Azerbaijani FA in his role as Technical Director.

For the first time in their history, Azerbaijan’s U17 and U19 football teams qualified to the
elite round in Europe under Lippert’s tutelage.

He also achieved the best result with the U21national in the history of the country during the European qualifying round.

In fact, all current A-National Team
players were trained and educated by Lippert.

And this should serve as a plus for Ghana Football following his appointment.

The future can look bright with the appointment of Lippert with an experienced local, Professor Joseph Mintah playing a direct supportive role.