Coach Otto Addo has expressed satisfaction with the team’s win against Trinidad and Tobago and the spirited performance against Nigeria in the Unity Cup, praising new players’ and noting the challenge of selecting the best players for the World Cup qualifiers in September due to the high level of talent. 

Otto appreciates opportunities like the Unity Cup for evaluating players but acknowledges scheduling constraints.

 The former Ghana winger plans to continue monitoring players, including those injured, and preparing for the World Cup qualifiers against Chad and Mali in September. 

He emphasizes the importance of staying humble and working hard to achieve their goals.

On win against Trinidad and Tobago

I am very satisfied; we brought in new players, again, who are fresh, and I think we really did well in the first half, to press, to create chances, except this one situation where they had a shot on target which flew in front of the post. Everything went well and I am very, very satisfied that everybody could show himself.

On the players performance in two matches

The challenge is on. A lot of players showed that they can compete at the highest level, and this makes my work hard. But this is how we want it. You can see that in Ghana there is a lot of talent, and I am happy to give them the chance in this tournament. 

This will make the decisions a little bit more difficult even though we played well in our last World Cup qualifying games. We really have to think about how to include one, two or three players. I don’t know, let’s see. We will still observe them. We will look at how their season will go, next season. I am happy for them to have holidays now. They should rest to start fresh and surely how they will perform with their clubs will also decide in the end for September.

On getting more games like the Unity Cup

If possible, why not. The calendar is very, very tight for a lot of clubs in Europe especially. That is why I think it would be difficult. But if we could arrange something like this more often, it would be really, really good because it gives me a bigger and brighter picture of all the players. It was a good competition for us, like I said this tournament, despite the results was a big, big win for us because it answered a lot of questions for us.

 On plan from now until September

Surely, I will be visiting players like I always do when the season starts. I will be watching matches and come together with my team to decide who will come for the next game. We are really looking forward to that; we want to start to start with a win in the World Cup qualifiers against Chad. Before that we will start to prepare well. There is also a lot of injured players, we will keep in touch with them and stay connected so that when we come together in September, everybody will be ready to do the job.

On being calm now that results and performance are getting better  

It’s always easier to work when you win. But on the other hand, we have to stay humble. We have to keep on working. If anybody thinks we are already at the World Cup, I can guarantee you, it’s not like that. I have seen too many things in football and we really, really have to work hard to fulfil our aim.

The failure to produce world champions, coupled with struggles of the national boxing team, the Black Bombers, have conspired to cast dark shadows over the progress of boxing in Ghana.

Since the loss of world titsles won by Richard Commey and Isaac Dogboe, the last set of world champions, Ghana has failed to get a boxer closer to that dream at the pay-per-punch level.

At the amateur level, the story has been gloomy for the Ghana Boxing Federation; failing to qualify boxers to major events, including the last Olympic Games.

These teething challenges must occupy the thoughts and minds of the administrators instead of the boardroom wrangling that has created chaotic scenes on the boxing space.

Clearly, some promotions staged recently were indicative of the fact that Ghana as a country has not lost it all. There are some boxers who are showing enough talents that needed the help of officialdom to make that giant leap to the international stage.

At the amateur level, the Black Bombers are not bereft of talent to take their rightful place in international boxing. What is missing are the regular competitions locally and the ability to partake in international competitions to stay alert and competitive.

The news of the Black Rockets- the younger version of the Black Bombers- to have shone at the just ended Africa Youth Boxing Championship in Guinea, therefore, comes as a gratifying news for lovers of the sport.

It is also a big feather in the cup of the GBF led by Mr Bernard Quartey under whose administration the feat was chalked.

The team, according to reports, put up a spirited performance at the 2025 Africa Youth Amateur Boxing Championship and capped it with three gold medals.

But for the Africa Games Accra 2023 success, this feat would have been the biggest in over decades.

The gold medals came from Desmond Pappoe, who knocked out South Africa’s Mighty Sangoni in the second round of the Men’s Middleweight (75kg) division, as well as Mathias Ashitey in the flyweight (51kg) category and George Dowouna in the bantamweight (54kg) division.

This win offers an assurance of Ghana’s ability in youth and amateur boxing, and the need to begin to raise new champions and potential world beaters through a systematic way of identifying talents for grooming.

Pappoe, Ashittey and Dowuona are young and upcoming brawlers at the youthful stages of the sport, getting guidance and tuition from another breed of upcoming coaches hungry for honours.

This is surely the way to go. It is important for the GBF to first of all identify such dedicated coaches whose focus must solely be on these youngsters.

Sometimes, the shift in concentration – as coaches manage both youngsters and professionals at the same time – bring a lot of distractions which in the end affects their upbringing.

These dedicated coaches must be trained and sponsored to participate in courses run by the International Boxing Association (IBA) to be certified.

After this, their core mandate should be a recruitment of young and talented boxers to join the Black Rockets.

The focus of this generation of boxers must be to participate in championships similar to the Africa Youth Championships or locally organised ones and finally aim to compete for spaces in the Black Bombers’ team.

For the feat, they deserve the commendation of all. Just as agencies of sports appear to have opened doors to welcome them and also share in the glory, it is a fervent hope and prayer that when the need for support arises for the Rockets to make similar trips, those doors would not be shut on them. Ayekoo to the Black Rockets.

 By Andrew Nortey