Kofi Adams: Black Stars could have gone further at World Cup if Carlos Queiroz had more time

The Minister for Sports and Recreation, Kofi Adams, believes Ghana’s performance at the 2026 FIFA World Cup could have been significantly better if head coach Carlos Queiroz had been appointed earlier.

The experienced Portuguese coach, 73, was named as Otto Addo’s successor in April, just weeks before the global tournament, leaving him with limited time to prepare the Black Stars for football’s biggest stage.

Speaking in an interview with Joy News, Mr Adams praised Queiroz’s impact, insisting that the former Real Madrid assistant coach improved the team despite the short period available to him.

According to the Minister, Ghana’s performances in the friendly matches leading up to Queiroz’s appointment had created doubts among supporters about the team’s chances at the World Cup.

He noted that a series of disappointing results during the preparation period made it difficult for many Ghanaians to believe the Black Stars could compete effectively against some of the world’s best teams.

However, Mr Adams said the team showed clear signs of improvement after Queiroz took over, particularly in tactical organisation, discipline and overall competitiveness.

“If you look at the losses that we were suffering in all our friendlies post the qualifications, you just couldn’t trust that everything would be fine. If you watch the strategy of the new coach Carlos, and you look at the friendlies that we had against Wales, our performance against Panama, our performance against England, and even against Croatia, you could see clearly that giving much more time, a lot more could have been done."

The Minister added that with more preparation time, Queiroz could have guided Ghana to a stronger campaign.

“I don’t think that the coach was bad. I believe that if we had given this coach the opportunity to handle almost all our friendlies, even post-qualification, we could have produced a much better result than we did. But all the same, Ghanaians didn’t expect us to do anything meaningful. They just thought that we were just going to play the three matches and not impress anybody.”

Ghana made their fifth appearance at the FIFA World Cup in 2026 and began the tournament with a narrow 1-0 victory over Panama, before holding England to a goalless draw.

The Black Stars, however, suffered a 2-1 defeat to Croatia in their final Group L match but still advanced to the knockout stage as one of the best third-placed teams.

Their World Cup journey ended in the Round of 32 after a 1-0 loss to Colombia, with Jhon Arias scoring the winning goal.

Following their exit, Ghana will now turn attention to the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, where they have been drawn in Group C alongside Côte d’Ivoire, Somalia and The Gambia. The qualification campaign is expected to begin in September.