Former BSC Young Boys manager Martin Andermatt, has become to latest manager to express keen interest in the vacant Ghana job, following the sacking of Chris Hughton by the Ghana Football Association earlier this week.
The sacking of Hughton came in the wake of Ghana’s disappointing performance at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, where they exited at the group stage in Cote d’Ivoire.
Sportsworldghana.com can exclusively report that Andermatt, has instructed his representatives to sharply reach out to the leadership of the Ghana Football Association to formally submit his application to be considered for the ‘juicy’ Black Stars job as he believes his experience would help transform Ghana football.
The 62-year old manager holds a UEFA Pro Licence with a preferred 4-3-3 attacking formation.
In 2017, two Swiss managers Raoul Savoy and Bernard Challandes slapped in their CVs to be considered for the vacant Ghana coaching Job but none of them was considered for the Ghana bob.
The Ghana FA has officially declared Friday, February 2, 2024, at 11:59 pm as the ultimate deadline for all prospective applicants.
Martin Andermatt ‘s Coaching career:
His managerial career began with FC Emmenbrücke where he was player manager from 1995 to 1997. After this he spent a season with each, FC Winterthur and FC Baden.
In March 1999, he took on German second division side SSV Ulm 1846, then on 5th place and in the course of the season’s last 11 matchdays led them to the third place, and thus the first ever promotion to the Bundesliga.
After 24 matches there the club was closer to an UEFA Cup rank then to the relegation zone, but a crisis thereafter saw the SSV 1846 passed down again after just a single season. After bad results at the beginning of the new year in the second division Andermatt was let go already in September. This maneuver did not help the club at all and by the end of that season Ulm had gone all the way to the third division.
From June 2001 until his premature exit in March 2002 he was hired by German side Eintracht Frankfurt which was just relegated to the second division in the hope that he might lead the team to an immediate return to the Bundesliga. After the fulfillment of this aspiration became more and more unrealistic he was replaced halfway through the second half of the season.
After this he returned to Switzerland and took over the reins at first division side FC Wil where he was fired in 2003 after the brief and turbulent take-over by former European footballer of the year Igor Belanov.
From 2003 to 2005 he coached FC Vaduz in Liechtenstein and alongside this the national side of the principality, where he could achieve some surprising results when drawing. 2-2 against Portugal, the losing finalists of the Euro 2004. Before this result, Liechtenstein had lost all of its previous 20 World Cup qualifiers.
The team also caused a shock in the return match at the end of the group phase when Benjamin Fischer scored and Liechtenstein led at half time before eventually losing 2-1. Liechtenstein under andermatt also won 4-0 at Luxembourg. On the other hand, Liechtenstein are the only country ever to lose to San Marino with a 0-1 loss in a friendly match on 28 April 2004.
The club side led in the Swiss second division for a long stretch of the 2004/05 season. At the end of the season FC Vaduz had a minor crisis which saw the slipping and Andermatt was fired four rounds before the end of the season. Vaduz missed out on promotion in the play-off matches versus Neuchâtel Xamax.
Andermatt however retained his position with the national team until October 2006 when he took the manager job with BSC Young Boys in Bern. There he finished his first season 4th.
On 17 September 2021, he was hired by Schaffhausen in the Swiss Challenge League. The club hired Artim Šakiri as a new manager just two weeks prior, but Šakiri was not able to obtain a work permit quickly, and the club hired Andermatt instead. Despite leading Schaffhausen to a second-place finish in the 2021-22 Swiss Challenge League (sadly, missing out on promotion in the promotion playoff), his contract was not renewed for the following season.
On 10 June 2022, Andermatt was hired as an assistant coach by Basel.
