Roger de Sa, the newly appointed assistant coach of Ghana’s Black Stars, has described the overnight message from Carlos Queiroz that set in motion his appointment and positioned him to make history as the first South African coach to attend three FIFA World Cups.
In an exclusive interview with South African outlet SportsBoom, De Sa revealed that he was asleep when the message arrived from Queiroz, the veteran Portuguese tactician who was simultaneously being pursued by the Ghana Football Association (GFA) following the dismissal of Otto Addo in March.
“I got the news overnight. I received a message from Carlos Queiroz basically asking me if I was up for a big challenge again, and he asked me to call him as soon as I woke up,” De Sa told SportsBoom. “He basically told me that, look, the Ghana national team was looking for his services, and obviously, he would require me to go and assist him. It was not a very difficult decision to make and accept.”
De Sa, 61, said the first person he told after reading the message was his wife. “Having read the message in the very early hours of the morning, the first person I told was my wife, just to let her know that there would be a strong possibility that this would happen and that it was another World Cup and my seventh national team. I think she’s become pretty accustomed to this,” he said.
The appointment deepens a working relationship between De Sa and Queiroz that stretches back across two decades, taking in multiple national teams including Bafana Bafana, Egypt, Portugal, and Iran. Their collaboration in Egypt produced a run to the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final, and the partnership continued through Iran’s 2022 FIFA World Cup campaign in Qatar.
De Sa’s third World Cup appearance as a coach will be a first among South Africans to have reached that milestone. On his broader coaching career, which has brought him into contact with elite players including Mohamed Salah and Cristiano Ronaldo, De Sa said ambition alone never drove him. “I’ve never had big dreams, to be honest with you, as a kid. It was always to just win every day, win every match, win every training session and try to win every competition,” he said.
Ghana are placed in Group L of the 2026 FIFA World Cup alongside England, Croatia, and Panama. The Black Stars open their campaign on June 17 against Panama in Toronto, Canada. The tournament runs from June 11 to July 19 across the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
