New Black Queens Head Coach, Nora Häuptle has announced a strategy titled ‘Mission Volta’ to return the team to its glory days.
Ghana, three-time runners-up of the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations (AWCON) in 1998, 2022, and 2006, failed to qualify for the last edition of the tournament in 2022.
This came on the back of a group stage exit at the 2018 AWCON hosted in Accra.
During Ghana’s glory days, the Women’s senior nation team qualified for three consecutive Women’s World Cups from 1999 to 2007.
However, the Black Queens will miss out on the 2023 World Cup just as they did in 2011, 2015, and 2019.
Speaking to Ghanafa.org, Häuptle said:
“I know that the Black Queens have been one of Africa’s best; attended the World Cup in 1999 and 2003, and so on but the performances have dropped a bit in the last years. We are well aware of that and so we created a new mission called ‘Volta.’
“Volta is a big river in Ghana and it is a Portuguese word that means ‘Turn.’ So now with my appointment we want to make the turn towards success again and of course, it is not just happening.”
“We need high commitment from President to all the leaders, Technical Director, and the Ghana FA, hoping they will support us and provide all the necessary investment so we can fulfill this.”
“Again, it is about bringing the right players into the national team. There are so many players who play in very good leagues abroad and we need to work to bring them in. My job is to get in contact with them, call them, and to invite them back to the Black Queens but they also need to give back commitment.”
“I only want to work with players who will commit with their full hearts for the Black Queens. The next step is that we need to work a lot, and play a lot of highly competitive games so we can measure ourselves.”
“We need to have challenges so we can grow and have a lot of tournaments in front of us but we need to do friendly games against the best opponents in the world, put in a good strategy and principles on the pitch. We also need a lot of leadership and that will be in the “Mission Volta.”
Nora Häuptle is working with the first batch of 47 local players at the Ghanaman Soccer Centre of Excellence at Prampram as part of the journey towards the 2023 WAFU Zone B Cup of Nations and qualifiers for the 2024 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations.
The former Swiss International plans to create a fluid selection and scouting policy for players both locally and abroad.
—Citinewsroom
