Otto Addo goes into football history books as the first Ghanaian to play and qualify the team for the World Cup.
Addo was part of Ghana’s squad, which represented the nation at its first World Cup appearance in 2006, hosted by Germany, where his debut was a 2-0 win over the Czech Republic and followed it up with a 2-1 victory over the USA to qualify from the group stage of the tournament.
Addo was strong in one-on-one situations, physical, creative, and versatile enough to play in various positions in the team set-up.
The ex-Black Stars player, now a coach, led the Black Stars to draw 1-1 against Nigeria at the Moshood Abiola Stadium on Tuesday.
The draw means Ghana have secured a historic 4th FIFA World Cup tournament, having participated in three consecutive appearances since 2006.
Addo was appointed as an interim coach to replace Milovan Rajevac, who was sacked after a humiliating exit of the Black Stars at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon.
The 46-year-old is currently the assistant coach of the German Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund. He boasts of about 13 years of coaching experience dating back to 2009 when he first took up the job of an assistant coach at Hamburger SV.
On his national record on coaching duty, he began as a scout for the Black Stars in 2013, before the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil and the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea.
He also served as an assistant coach of the team when coach Milovan Rajevac was appointed last year.
Following the qualification, Otto Addo joins coach Kwesi Appiah as the two ingenious coaches to take Ghana to the tournament after the latter did in 2014.