South African coach Roger de Sa has opened up about his brief stint as assistant coach of the Ghana national team, serving alongside head coach Carlos Queiroz for roughly three to four months.
The tenure culminated with a journey to the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the USA, Mexico, and Canada, after which de Sa stepped down in July to return to South Africa.
Reflecting on the experience, de Sa noted that the role provided invaluable lessons and praised the opportunity to work alongside “phenomenal players,” including Manchester City forward Antoine Semenyo.
“Obviously, doing the Ghana gig for the World Cup was fantastic,” De Sa told iDiski Times.
“It was my third World Cup as a coach. It is a pinnacle of football. I must admit that when you’re involved in the World Cup, you realise it’s the cream of the crop – the organisation, stadiums, hotels, the level of the players there is nothing you can fault.”
Having previously had assistant coach roles with Portugal in 2010 and Iran in Qatar in 2022, this marked his third World Cup appearance.
“Since I started in 2010, it’s kind of getting better and better, Qatar was fantastic, USA was unbelievable as well,” he added.
“To work with such national teams, I had an opportunity to work with phenomenal players like Semenyo, all top players you can think of.
“I worked with Egypt, Moh Salah, I had an opportunity to coach Ronaldo in 2010. It’s been a fantastic journey, most enjoyable. It was long, hard, lots of travelling, lots of visiting clubs and players.
“The Ghana stint, I think I did something like 28 cities in six weeks. I visited about 20 clubs with about 25 players in Europe. So just that alone was an education.
“Coaching in World Cup was great, seven national teams I have done and three World Cups.”