Sports News of Tuesday, 17 April 2012

Source: FINDER Sports

Desailly wants to coach Stars in future

Marcel Desailly has told FINDER sports he still has ambitions of coaching the Black Stars in the future.

This comes after the former France captain failed to land the coaching job of the senior national team.

“There are competitions in 2015 and 2017. I have told my wife that someday I will be coach of the Black Stars but, when exactly (?) I don’t know. Most of the people wanted me to be the coach because of my experience and because of many things. We discussed a lot of things including the option of a local coach or a foreign coach. I was unavailable because of my other commitments but finally we have a coach and I am happy.”

Desailly was highly tipped to be the next coach of the Black Stars before Kwesi Appiah’s confirmation earlier in the week. It is the second time he has come close to coaching the senior national team.

Desailly was the front runner for the Stars job after the departure of Milovan Rajevac in 2010 before the FA settled on Goran Stevanovic who lasted just a year after a disappointing campaign at the 2012 African Nations Cup in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

It has been rumored that Desailly’s huge financial demands was the major reason he was not given the job on the second occasion but the ex France Captain has squashed those rumours.

“It will never been an issue of money for me to be Black Stars coach or not.” Asked whether he was interested in the job after the departure of Goran Stevanovic, Desailly said emphatically that he was not interested.

‘No I didn’t express any interest in the job, but I was very pleased and I want to thank him (Nyantakyi) and everyone that has been supporting me but unfortunately I was not in the market.”

Desailly pleaded with people not to tag him as unpatriotic because he is doing a lot to help the development of Ghana. Former assistant coach of Black Stars Kwesi Appiah was on Easter Monday handed permanent responsibility of the team, ending weeks of head hunting by the GFA for a successor to Goran Stevanovic.

Desailly also pledged his support for Kwesi Appiah and affirmed to continue helping the GFA in any capacity.

Desailly won the World Cup with France in 1998 and the European championship in 2002. He later became the captain of France.

He also played top flight football for Italian giants AC Milan and English Premier League side Chelsea.