No Pressure – Otto Addo on world cup expectations

Black Stars Head Coach, Otto Addo believes Ghana’s Black Stars are heading into the FIFA World Cup in Qatar with a ‘nothing to lose’ mentality.

According to Otto Addo, he simply honoured to be leading the Black Stars to a World Cup, but does not feel the pressure.

“For me, at the end of the day, it’s just a football match, and pressure is something different. How I grew up, and even in my time in Ghana, when you don’t know what you’ll eat the next day – that is pressure. And even those who find themselves in that situation still danced and laughed” he told the BBC.

“For me it’s just a big honour to be in this position, and I’ll try my best for us to be successful. We’re the bottom ranked team in the FIFA rankings heading into the World Cup. In that playoff game against Nigeria, we had nothing to lose. Nobody expected us to qualify, but we did. So we know very few people, except Ghanaians, expect something big from us, so there’s not much pressure. We can all win,” he added.

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Meanwhile he has dismissed the notion that the new players who have declared their readiness to play for the national team did so because of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

“It’s a tough decision and they know what they are getting into. Surely it’s not just about this World Cup. It’s about more World Cups to come, AFCONs, winning and being successful, so it’s not just about this one World Cup” he indicated.