Sports News of Monday, 31 October 2022

Source: footballghana.com

I was named after Brazilian football legend - Black Stars assistant coach Mas-Ud Didi Dramani

Black Stars assistant coach, Mas-Ud Didi Dramani Black Stars assistant coach, Mas-Ud Didi Dramani

Black Stars assistant coach, Mas-Ud Didi Dramani, has revealed that he was named after a Brazilian football legend, Waldyr Pereira, also known as Didi. The Right to Dream Technical Director made this revelation during an interview with Graphic Sports. According to him, his father, George Dramani, one-time General Secretary of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), named him after the famous World Cup winner on his return from a coaching course in Brazil, the same year he was born. Interestingly, the name Didi has become even more popular among stakeholders in the football industry than his maiden name Dramani. “I got the name Didi because I was born when my father, who was an astute coach, returned from a Brazilian tour alongside Asebi Boakye, Ohene Djan, Nana Nketia, Osam-Duodu and the rest,” he disclosed. Before landing the Black Stars assistant coaching job early this year, Dramani had won the Ghana Premier League title back-to-back with Asante Kotoko in his first attempt in the 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 seasons, earning him the SWAG Coach of the Year honors in 2012. Within that same period, the 56-year-old trainer also lifted the 2013/2014 FA Cup and the Super Cup, while crowning it all with the Coach of the Year awards in 2013 and 2014. All those accolades were preceded by a historic bronze medal Didi won with the Black Maidens at the 2012 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Azerbaijan, following a 1-0 victory over Germany in the third-place playoff. He again chalked another first in the annals of Ghana football after emerging as the first Ghanaian coach to work with a European club following a stint with FC Nordsjælland of Denmark in the 2018/2019 season.