Portuguese fitness trainer Mariano Barreto has admitted that most parts of his CV presented to the Ghana Football Association were embellished.

Speaking at a lunch meeting organised by Mr.O.B. Amoah of the GFA with a select group of media practitioners at the Dynasty Chinese Restaurant last Wednesday, Barreto did not deny revelations made by GHANAWEB on inaccuracies in his curriculum vitae presented to the Ministry of Youth and Sports as well as the Ghana Football Association.

“All the information provided about the discrepancies on the CV of Barreto is true. He admitted the mistakes on the CV.”according to a broadcaster present at the meeting.

He admitted being the physical trainer of Paolo Soussa but not the assistant coach of Borussia Dortmund as spelt out in his CV. He also admitted that he worked at Lokomotiv Moscow as a fitness trainer.

He however disclosed that though he was not the head coach of Alverca between 1999 and 2001 as published in his CV he handled the team for a three-week period after Carlos Perreira had left. Vitor Manuel took over afterwards.

The meeting was attended by political journalist, turned soccer expert, Asare Otchere Darko whose Statesman newspaper had wasted vials of ink accusing the Soccer Express of a smear campaign against Barreto even though our two major sources of documentary evidence were provided by the Portuguese coach himself and his national federation, the Federacao Portuguese de Futbol.

Others at the meeting included Joy FM’s Kojo Frempong, Metro TV’s Randy Abbey, Graphic Sports Maurice Quansah, Choice FM’s Mohammed Amin Lamptey and Kojo Quarshie of the FA Executive Council, according to Soccer Express.

Meanwhile calls for attempts to engage the Portuguese even after the revelation that a large part of his CV was embellished is growing. Kurt Okraku a Ghanaian sport broadcaster currently based in the UK said: “Barretto has lied to Ghanaians and his presence should not be encouraged in football in Ghana.” Okraku who will take his MBA in Football Management at Liverpool University next September added: “Ghana does not need fitness coach to coach the national team. What we need is an experienced coach to turn things around for Ghana football. Barreto is clearly coming to experiment.”