Football - Ghana

Product Details

Coaching football in dusty fields in Africa... does it get better than that?

Football in Ghana is a massive sport and played by millions across the country on typical African dirt pitches. Ghana’s recent excellent performance in the 2006 football World Cup showed the country’s potential to be a major force in world football and in Africa. With players such as Michael Essien, Ghana has an abundance of undiscovered talent.

As well as coaching football you will be involved in organising, managing and running the Travellers Football Tournaments. You don't have to have a great knowledge of the game and the rules, but you must be an enthusiastic person who enjoys playing the game.

Many children in Ghana don’t have the opportunity to receive proper coaching at a young age and they lack the basic ball skills and understanding of the game compared to those in Europe. The skill level within the country is very high and with professional coaching from Travellers volunteers, children will be able to use their raw talent more effectively and in a structured way.

As a Travellers Football coach, you'll work with a number of schools in Accra, coaching football during lesson times and coaching the school teams after school. As well as coaching football you will be involved in organising, managing and running the Travellers Football Tournaments.

As there is very little sports infrastructure and little opportunity for schools to play in competitive tournaments in Ghana, Travellers have created a number of tournaments which allow the children to use the skills they have learnt from the volunteers and put them into practice playing against other schools. If you are involved in one of the Travellers tournaments, it will be the highlight of your placement. You'll see how all of the work you have done on your placement will have paid off - and to see the enjoyment it brings to the children is priceless.

Play with Nania FC (Division 1)
Another team we work with are the semi-professional team Nania FC, who are in Division 1 in Accra. Nania FC also go on regular tours to Europe where they play the likes of Blackburn Rovers and other big European teams. As an assistant coach at Nania FC, you'll coach alongside former Ghanaian football player, Walker Annor and you'll also work alongside European Champions League winner, 3 times African Player of the Year, winner of the African Cup of Nations and former Ghanaian Captain, Abedi Pele. Abedi Pele is considered to be the best ever Ghanaian football player and one of the best African players of all times. Abedi has 67 Ghanaian caps, so to work alongside such a legend in football is a unique opportunity. As a Travellers Football coach, you will be able to coach, train and hopefully play for Nania FC - but only if you're good enough and get selected.

Accommodation
Accommodation will vary, depending on your work location. You may live in comfortable guest house accommodation, but you will most likely live with a host family. This means that you get to eat, sleep, work, socialise and generally live like a Ghanaian. Local family stays enable you to fully experience the local culture from the inside. Many of our volunteers remain friends with their host families long after they leave Ghana and in some cases they return to the country later especially to visit their family. Sometimes members of their Ghanaian family have even gone to visit them in their home country.

Food will be local cuisine - again this is to enable you to fully experience living as local Ghanaians do.

Our users say...
"My family Lizzie and Prince are lovely. The children are very sweet and I feel extremely lucky to have been placed with them. The house is of a Western standard in most ways and Lizzie's cooking is excellent. I feel a part of their family already."