BLACK STARS JOB: Kluivert considered too inexperienced

Finder Sports’ sources at the Ghana Football Association say former Dutch international Patrick Kluivert is still in the race for the vacant Black Stars job but his chances are very slim due to his relative inexperience.

Our sources say, despite Kluivert’s stellar career as a footballer, it is no guarantee he would succeed as the head coach of the Black Stars.

For the uninitiated, Patrick Kluivert is a former Barcelona striker and a Dutch icon. Kluivert, 38, was assistant to Louis van Gaal at the 2014 World Cup as the Netherlands finished third in Brazil. He has yet to manage a club in his own right but did spend a year with FC Twente's reserves and had spells at AZ Alkmaar and as NEC Nijmegen assistant. The 38-year-old helped bring through European and former world champions Pedro and Sergio Busquets while at the Nou Camp. He also spent a short time as assistant manager to the late Tito Vilanova two years ago.  Kluivert helped Ajax to their famous 1995 Champions League triumph, scoring the winning goal against AC Milan in Vienna, and had a lengthy spell at Barca after a year at Milan. He earned 79 caps for the Netherlands national team over a decade.

Kluivert is one of five applicants who have been shortlisted by the three-man committee set up by the Ghana Football Association to look for a new coach for the senior national football team, the Black Stars.

The Black Stars job has become vacant following the termination of Kwesi Appiah’s contract last month.

With the 2015 Nations Cup in Morocco fast approaching and the Black Stars deeply involved in the qualifiers for that same tournament, the GFA is eager to appoint a new coach as soon as possible.

Over thirty coaches applied for the vacant job; but last week Finder Sports revealed that the three-man search committee had pruned the number to only five with face to face interviews scheduled for October 18, 2014.

Aside Kluivert, former Chelsea coach Avram Grant, former Egypt head coach Marco Tardelli, former Switzerland assistant coach Michel Pont and former Valladolid coach Juan Ignacio Martinez are the other candidates for the Ghana job.

Insiders at the GFA tell Finder Sports that Avram Grant and Marco Tardelli are now the leading contenders for the Black Stars job.

By Daniel Oduro