OFFICIAL: Chris Hughton is Black Stars head coach

Christopher William Gerard Hughton, a 64-year-old Irish-Ghanaian has been appointed the head coach of Ghana’s national football team, the Black Stars.

His immediate task immediate task will be to prepare the Black Stars for their upcoming Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches against Angola on March 20 and March 28, barely weeks after his appointment.

Chris Hughton’s appointment as Black Stars Coach was confirmed in an official statement put out by the Ghana Football Association Sunday evening.

The GFA statement said the appointment of Hughton was after “extensive deliberations between the two parties” and falls in line with the Association’s vision to “continue with the project of building a formidable squad that started with Otto Addo in the lead up to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 tournament.”

Hughton has a wealth of managerial experience across the Premier League and Championship.

The new head coach of the Black Stars has managed Newcastle, Birmingham, Norwich and Brighton and has two promotions to the top flight on his CV. He takes over Ghana’s national team having a rather rich of managerial experience across the Premier League and Championship.

He has been the Technical Advisor of the Black Stars for the past twelve months

The statement from the GFA said it has decided to maintain Assistant Coaches George Boateng and Mas-Ud Didi Dramani.

Chris’ profile published by www.premierleague.com said in 1979, he became the first mixed-race player to represent the Republic of Ireland, amassing 53 caps for the country of his mother’s birth.

The website said: Chris spent two years at West Ham United and a further season with Brentford before retiring in 1993.

Born in Forest Gate, Hughton started his coaching career in London with former club Spurs – a spell that lasted 14 years from June 1993 to October 2007.

Hughton’s spell with the north London club included two caretaker manager roles and he served under 10 different managers at White Hart Lane.

On 22 February 2008, Newcastle announced the appointment of Hughton as first-team coach under Kevin Keegan. He became caretaker manager in September following the former England manager’s departure.

Hughton returned to his coaching role during the 2008/09 season, but found himself in the caretaker role again for the 2009/10 campaign following Newcastle’s relegation to the Championship.

The Magpies started the season brightly, resulting in Hughton winning the Manager of the Month awards for August, September and November. The permanent appointment of the English-born coach followed.

Promotion back to the Premier League was secured in early April before the title was sealed a couple of weeks later, Hughton losing only four of 46 league matches and remaining unbeaten at St. James’ Park.

Newcastle and Hughton parted ways in December 2010 and he was out of management until June 2011, when he took charge of Birmingham City.

After guiding the League Cup holders to the UEFA Europa League group stages and the Championship play-offs, Norwich City required the services of Hughton in the Premier League.

Norwich ended the 2012/13 season in 11th place, but there was a parting of the ways in April 2014 with the Canaries one place and five points above the bottom three.

Brighton announced the appointment of Hughton on 31 December 2014 and he guided the Seagulls to the Championship play-offs in his first full season.

The next campaign would be even more successful as he led Brighton to the Premier League for the first time in the club’s history thanks to a second-place finish in the second tier.

A 15th-place finish followed in 2017/18, securing the Seagulls’ top-flight status for at least another term.

Hughton guided Brighton to the FA Cup semi-finals and 17th place in 2018/19, but he was relieved of his duties at the end of the season.