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Sharuko on Saturday
FROM the word go, something just didn’t feel right — his name didn’t ring a bell, his track record appeared to be one plucked from hell.
Ordinarily, we should have known him.
After all, he had arrived in the jungles of African football, even before the World Cup bandwagon rolled onto the continent, for the first, and only time, in this tournament’s history.
That was in 2010.
Back in the days, when we would swing our hips, as we danced to Shakira’s Waka Waka (This Time For Africa) World Cup signature tune.
When R Kelly was still a free man, who could go wherever he wanted and flew down here, to give the World Cup a beautiful soundtrack, with his hit song, the “Sign of Victory.’’
That was before damaging rape accusations emerged, crushing his image and transforming him into a monster who now finds himself battling to convince a jury he isn’t a serial rapist.
A year before the World Cup party exploded in South Africa, Zdravko Logarusic arrived in Ghana in 2009 to take charge of a club called King Faisal Babes.
In terms of timing, his arrival on the continent could not have been more perfect, with all the eyes of the football world focused on Africa.
And, as it turned out, his choice of destination could not have been better, either.
Because in 2010, in the Land of the Black Stars, Loga had a ringside seat to watch and feel the magic of football and its amazing impact on the people of Ghana, in particular, and Africa, in general.
The Black Stars transformed themselves into the darlings of their continent with a magical run which captured the imagination of their country, as they came within just a penalty conversion of becoming the first African side to reach the World Cup semi-finals.
The delirious thousands of fans who turned up to welcome them home, was a reminder of the importance of this game on a continent which has its fair share of challenges.
And for a fleeting moment, Ghanaians forgot all their problems.
That’s the raw power of football, something which K’Naan, the singer from Somalia appeared to celebrate, in his hit 2010 World Cup theme song, “Wavin’ Flag.’’
Born Keinan Abdi Warsame, amid the chaos of war in Mogadishu, he was only 12, when three of his friends were shot by a gunman.
He was then lucky to escape death when a grenade he mistook for a potato exploded.
After fleeing the war at home, and moving to Canada with his family as a refugee, he reinvented himself into K’Naan, the musician.
And, by the time the 2010 World Cup came around, he was one of the most sought-after African artistes and, in South Africa, his song, “Wavin’ Flag,’’ captured the mood of both the game and the continent.
Twenty one years later, his powerful lyrics still represent our dreams in football, just like in life, as proud Africans, as defiant people, as ambitious individuals.
“Give me freedom, give me fire, give me reason, take me higher, see the champions, take the field now, unify us, make us feel proud,’’ he sings.
“In the streets our heads are lifting, as we lose our inhibition, celebration, it surrounds us, every nation, all around us, staying forever young, singing songs underneath the sun.
“Let’s rejoice in the beautiful game, and together at the end of the day, we all say, when I get older, I will be stronger, they’ll call me ‘freedom,’ just like a waving flag.’’
Every word he sings in this powerful song relates to the sheer power of football and the amazing spiritual connection between this game and us.
The Black Stars success was such a profound moment that, for some of us who spent that World Cup working across South Africa, the impact of what they did will never be forgotten.
By the time they took on Uruguay in that quarter-final, in which the Hand of the Devil, represented by Luis Suarez’s deliberate handball, would destroy their dreams, they had won over the South Africans.
Suddenly, we now had the locals calling themselves BaGhana BaGhana, a bastardised but yet beautiful version of their own Bafana Bafana, the hosts, who had fallen in the group stages.
If all this was happening in South Africa, one can only wonder what was unfolding in Ghana, as a nation came together to celebrate the heroics of its football team.
Loga was there to see it all, from up close and personal, to feel this wave of joy, to appreciate that when it comes to this continent, football is more than just a game.
AN EXPERT IN DENIAL, WHO COULD PRODUCE A CLASSIC THESIS
Personally, for him, there was very little to celebrate.
After all, his club had finished in the lower half of the table in 10th place out of the 16 clubs.
Their tally of 42 points was just four points better than Liberty Professionals, who occupied the final safe slot from relegation.
It’s something of a crazy top-flight league where, the champions that season, Aduana Stars, somehow finished with the lowest number of goals scored among the 16 clubs, with only 19 to their credit.
Of course, Ghanaian football has a massive profile around the world, but that is largely due to the exploits of their Black Stars, whose image skyrocketed in that winter of 2010, in South Africa.
Their domestic league now lives off the crumbs from the success of a bygone era, and 21 years have now passed since a Ghanaian club won the CAF Champions League when Hearts of Oak triumphed in 2000.
By the time the 2010/2011 Ghanaian Premiership season got underway, Loga’s romance with King Faisal Babes was already over.
And this club, whose modest ambitions were confirmed by their investment in this rookie Croatian coach, still trying to find his feet in coaching were relegated that season.
No one knows what had convinced the King Faisal Babes leadership to take a chance on such a lightweight coach.
Especially, given his Curriculum Vitae showed he had only taken charge of a Division Three club in his homeland,called NK Marsonia.
His other coaching stint was with HNK Vukovar ’91, whose only flirtation with the Croatian top-flight league ended after one miserable campaign in which they finished bottom of the table.
By February 2012, when Loga was already working at his third African club in three years, having joined Gor Mahia of Kenya from Ghana’s Ashanti Gold, HNK Vukovar collapsed under a mountain of debt.
He promised Gor Mahia he would end their 18-year wait for the league championship but by the time their union ended, predictably under a cloud, the premier prize was not in the club’s cabinet.
Gor Mahia officials claimed he lost focus with his extended holidays back home in Croatia appearing to be more important to him than the club’s fortunes, leading to their nasty divorce.
Short stints at Simba SC (Tanzania), AFC Leopards (Kenya), GD Interclube (Angola) and Asante Kotoko (Ghana) followed in quick succession, all of them, predictably ending in acrimony.
And in all these doomed relationships, it was always the club, according to Loga, who came short, while he portrayed himself as football’s version of an angel, who could do nothing wrong.
An expert in denial, who could produce a classic thesis on how not to take ownership of one’s shortcomings, he never believed he was the one at fault.
Instead, he always found faults in his employers, and there was always an excuse.
AFC Leopards, he told the media, failed to pay for the rent of his apartment in Nairobi, leaving him homeless and unable to return to Kenya.
Gor Mahia could not get him a proper work permit, he claimed, leaving him to use a tourist visa and also work without a formal contract.
The management of Asante Kotoko, he said, were a bunch of “liars,’’ who didn’t know how to deal with a professional coach, leading to their messy divorce.
What he didn’t tell his audience after he was gone, was that just five wins in 11 matches, at a club like Asante Kotoko isn’t something they take lightly.
Especially when they are paying an arm, and a leg to a European coach.
Someone, somewhere was always the one at fault and, even after about a decade on the continent without even one league championship to show for his adventure, he was never the one who was the weakest link.
Even though his graphic flaws, both technical and tactical, were clearly evident wherever he worked.
Monumental flaws, which make the very reference to him as a football coach, an insult to everything which this noble profession of Sir Alex Ferguson, Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho and others represents.
Which makes an investment in the fraud of his shallowness or whatever magic he waves around, duping those who end up being sucked into his web of deceit, a gamble which never produces any dividends.
That explains why none of the clubs he has coached since his arrival on the continent won the league championship which should be the least of returns from hiring a European coach.
This probably also explains why their romance always ended after a short period, as it dawned upon both parties nothing was going to be delivered from their doomed union.
A GROUP OF PLUMBERS AND FISHERMEN DISGUISED AS COACHES
In December last year, the authoritative Goal.com football website, ranked Loga as lowly as number five, among the foreign coaches, who took charge of Gor Mahia.
Bobby Williamson, a Scotsman who took over from Loga, delivered the league championship in his first season at Gor Mahia, their first title in 18 years, was ranked number one.
Hassan Oktay, a Cypriot-Turkish coach, who also came and won the league championship at Gor Mahia, having joined the club in 2018, was ranked number three.
Dylan Kerr, the man Oktay replaced who is now in charge of Supa Diski side Marumo Giants, formerly known as Tshakhuma Tsha Mandzivhandila, was ranked number four.
But, it’s the man ranked second, Frank Nuttall, who really brought home the reality that in the recruitment of Loga, the people who had this national responsibility either slept on duty or sold us a dummy.
Nuttall guided Gor Mahia to an unbeaten run on their way to the league championship in 2015 and helped them win the KPL Top 8 Cup and the Kenyan Super Cup.
But, for me that someone who was effectively a fitness trainer at Scottish and English clubs came to Gor Mahia and won all this, while Loga couldn’t guide them to the championship, told me a bigger story.
It told me that whoever ended up choosing Loga to come here and be our national coach reduced the Warriors’ job to a Mickey Mouse assignment which could be taken by the European plumbers, and fishermen who come here pretending to be football coaches.
After he left Gor Mahia, Nuttall ended up at Zamalek, as an assistant coach to his fellow Scotsman, Alex McLeish.
But that’s not Mickey Mouse territory and after only 65 days, they were gone.
Then there was a familiar trek just like the one Loga had taken, with Nuttall joining Hearts of Oak, in 2017, where he was sacked in February the following year.
He surfaced in Sudan, where Loga had also arrived in December 2017,with Nuttall taking charge of El-Hilal El-Obeid.
And, in January, last year, he arrived in Botswana as head coach of Township Rollers.
On August 2, this year, BOOM, came the news from Township Rollers that Oktay — the same coach who had exchanged positions with Nuttall at Gor Mahia — was now coming in as their head coach.
“Township Rollers FC have reached an agreement with Mr Oktay Hassan to be the next head coach of Township Rollers,” the club said in a statement.
“He is an ex-professional player, highly qualified, and ambitious coach with over 25 years’ experience coaching across the world, with extensive stints in Europe, Asia, and Africa, working closely with squads to improve and progress teams and individual players.’’
This is what they told us about Loga.
And, somehow, those tasked with recruiting our next Warriors coach dragged us into this web of European plumbers, and fishermen, whose circle is the same.
So, in our quest to improve the Warriors, these guys settled for a coach simply because he was a European gaffer even though his profile showed he belonged to a group which, like vultures, keep circling around the carcasses of the very same clubs.
In a way, those who brought Loga here felt the Warriors were in the same class as King Faisal Babes, Ashanti Gold, Township Rollers, Gor Mahia, Simba SC, AFC Leopards and Asante Kotoko.
That, in a way, they were in the same class as GD Interclube, Hai Phong (Vietnam), Black Leopards, TTM, El-Hilal El Obied, Baroka and even Black Leopards.
Surely, this isn’t only an insult, on the name of the Warriors and everything they represent, but a dereliction of duty.
The payment for such an error of judgment, or deliberate sabotage, shouldn’t just be about firing this Croatian Comedian, but taking to task those who recommended he should be brought here.
The men who have now shattered our 2022 World Cup dream, in probably the easiest of all groups, after just two games, who want to tell us today that CHAN doesn’t matter, because Loga finished last, at the recent tournament.
Yet, they recruited Loga on the basis he finished third at the same tournament, with Sudan.
It’s not Loga’s fault he ended up as our coach, someone brought him here, and the country needs to know who sanctioned that recruitment.
Loga isn’t the worst coach to take charge of the Warriors, he is the worst coach to even be interviewed for the role of being our national coach.
It was never going to work out because from the very beginning, something just wasn’t right.
To God Be The Glory!
Peace to the GEPA Chief, the Big Fish, George Norton, Daily Service, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and all the Chakariboys in the struggle.
Come on United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ronaldoooooooooooooooooo!
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