Former Asante Kotoko defender Joseph Hendricks has appealed to the Ghana Football Association to show gratitude for the good services rendered by former dedicated Premier league players by rewarding them with free coaching courses as their golden handshake. In the worst case scenario the former defensive rock wants a discount for the ex league stars.
When the GFA announced the list of CAF Licence A coaches before the start of the 2019/20 season none of the notable premier league stars of the last two decades were included meaning big names like Charles Taylor, Don Bortey, Lawrence Adjah Tetteh, Joseph Hendricks, Stephen Oduro cannot be seen on the technical bench as head coaches in the league where they made significant contribution as players and Hendricks cites financial constraint as a major reason.
“People like Charles Taylor, Don Bortey, my own self, Keneth Sarpong you ask yourself how much money did we take as salary those days. How much did we take after the games. We got peanuts. The Federation and other bodies (like GHALCA) were earning big from the proceeds at our expense. Currently look at the contribution of names like Yahaya Mohammed, Felix Annan and co to the Ghana league and after everything you are told to cough up around GHC 4,000 to get a coaching education is that fair.” the former tough-tackling center back quizzed in an exclusive interview with SPORTSworldGhana.com .
“If the GFA could organize a free coaching course for former Ghana premier league stars that played a major role in making the league attractive those days I think God will bless them.” Hendricks continued.
“We sacrificed for the league and paid our dues and again at the moment the GFA does that for the former players it will serve as confidence booster for the upcoming and current players that even if they end their playing career in the country they know they are likely to get their coaching badges from the GFA as a sort of reward for their dedicated services to the league”
“After getting the badges and becoming licenced coaches we again give back to Ghana football and Ghana will benefit in the end.
The GFA made lot of money from our games and I think they should pay us back by organizing this free coaching course. They can select with a specific number of players at a time and give them the badges. At another period another group of ex players also enroll. Look we the former players are the ones that attracted fans to games and big money was made by the GFA. So to ask us to pay to get the badges does not go well with me personally.” he said.
“People like Charles Taylor, Don Bortey, my own self, Keneth Sarpong you ask yourself how much money did we take as salary those days. How much did we take after the games. We got peanuts. The Federation and other bodies (like GHALCA) were earning big from the proceeds at our expense. Currently look at the contribution of names like Yahaya Mohammed, Felix Annan and co to the Ghana league and after everything you are told to cough up around GHC 4,000 to get a coaching education is that fair.” the former tough-tackling center back quizzed.
“At worst the Ghana FA should offer we the former stars of the league a discount to get the badges.” he added.
Elsewhere in Africa and Europe it is common to see former players become head coaches of their clubs shortly after retiring. Former TP Mazembe defender Mihayo Kazembe is the current head coach of the club. Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid and Frank Lampard at Chelsea FC are some good examples
