The Black Stars of Ghana may not have had the road to Ivory Coast 2023 AFCON qualifiers on silver platter, but the finishing stages of the race is set for a seeming easy ride following the decision of next opponent’s coach to quit his job ahead the fixture against Ghana.
Ahead of their AFCON qualifier against Ghana at the Stade Kianja Barea in Antananarivo on Sunday, June 18, 2023 at 17H00, Madagascar’s head coach Nicolas Dupuis has decided to quit his role as head coach of the Barea before their game against the West African giants, the Black Stars.
In an exclusive interaction with Ghana’s leading sports news portal ghanasportspage.com, the French international Nicolas Dupuis announced his decision to quit his job by June 1 and ”move on”.
”I will no longer be the coach from June 1. I decided to quit and move on”, Dupuis confirmed exclusively to ghanasportspage.com.
Dupuis refused to reveal details of what might have informed his decision to draw the curtains at this stage, but the circumstances may surrounding the Barea may be the obvious reasons.
The 55-year old French tactician was appointed head coach of the Madagascar national team in March 2017, and qualified the nation to their first ever Africa Cup of Nations tournament in October 2018. Under his reign, Madagascar qualified for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt where they defiled all odds to reach the quarter finals of the tournament.
Following his impressive handling of the national team at the tournament, Nicolas Dupuis was given an additional role as the technical director for the team. He was in 2022 given another mandate to qualify Madagascar to the 2023 AFCON in Ivory Coast, but the might of Ghana, Angola and Central African Republic in the Group E as opponents, the Barea have woefully failed to make impact and have already been eliminated after losing three of their last four matches in the Group and drawing just one.
Madagascar have nothing to play for in the rest of their two qualifiers against Ghana (on June 18) and Angola (in September). In effect, Nicholas Dupuis has decided to quit his job effective June 1, 2023 and move on to seek different challenge in his 27-year long coaching career.
