Former Premier League manager Chris Hughton has disclosed that he wasn’t thinking about becoming the Black Stars’ technical advisor when he visited Ghana early this year.
The 63-year-old visited his father’s country in February and was immediately linked with the Black Stars job.
Although he wasn’t named as Milovan Rajevac’s successor following the Serbian’s dismissal, Hughton was appointed as part of Ghana’s technical team.
The former Nottingham Forest coach is currently the Black Stars’ technical advisor and helped them book their place at the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
Speaking about how he landed the role, Hughton said he came to Ghana with his wife to visit his family but ended up with a job.
“Three days before I arrived the Ghana coach lost his job. I was visiting family, just relaxing. But I must have been spotted and a lot of people, particularly in the local media, presumed I was there for the job. It kind of grew and grew,” he told the Daily Mail.
“They were discussing it on the TV and next thing my grandchildren were sending me stuff they’d seen on social media and asking why I hadn’t told them. I was relaxed about it. I knew it wasn’t true. But then over a period of time that all changed.”
Hughton was born in the UK to an Irish mother but has Ghanaian roots due to his father being Ghanaian.
He is a very experienced manager, having managed several clubs in the Premier League, including Tottenham, Newcastle United and West Ham.
He also has some experience in international football after serving as assistant manager for the Republic of Ireland from 2003 to 2005.
Discussing his relationship with the Ghana Football Association (GFA), he said: “I do have a relationship with the association simply because of my background and I spoke to them while I was there.
“Would this have happened had I not taken that holiday? Very possibly. Ghana had a difficult AFCON (they finished bottom of their group) in January and wanted to improve quickly as they had a World Cup eliminator almost immediately. But the holiday certainly didn’t do me any harm,” Hughton added.
