Otto Addo has resigned as coach following Ghana’s elimination from the World Cup group stage. The 47-year-old former Ghana player took over as interim manager after Milovan Rajevac was fired in February. He was given a contract that will last until the end of December.
Otto Addo is also the talent coach for Borussia Dortmund in Germany.
He said, “I always said if we qualified for the World Cup, I’d resign afterwards, even if we were world champions.” Addo added, “My family see our future in Germany.”
Ghana finished bottom of Group H after beating South Korea in between defeats by Portugal and Uruguay in Addo’s last game.
“Football is beautiful, sometimes it is ugly. It is ugly for us today. We have to learn, and I’m very sure we will learn from this in the future,” Otto Addo concluded.
Otto Addo was born in Hamburg to Ghanaian parents and has lived in Germany for most of his playing and coaching career. He began his professional career in 1991 with Hamburger SV and joined Hannover 96 in 1996. Addo then joined Borussia Dortmund in 1999 and played more than 75 times for the German club, which won the Bundesliga in 2002. He was, however, plagued by significant injury issues, as he tore his cruciate ligaments three times during this period.
He moved to FSV Mainz 05 at the start of the 2005-06 season but did not make an immediate impact. He did, however, perform well enough to be named to the Ghanaian team that competed in the 2006 World Cup. Otto Addo signed a three-year contract with German club Hamburger SV on August 9, 2007, initially rotating between the reserves and the main squad.
Addo played for the Ghana national team for seven years beginning in 1999, his debut being a 5-0 thrashing of Eritrea on February 28, 1999, and he rose to international attention when he led the country to victory in the 2000 African Cup of Nations. He declared his retirement from football in 2008, at the age of 38.