Desmond Sakyi Ofei was born on 4th November, 1987 in Mampong-Akuapim in the Eastern Region of Ghana.
Ofei had the privilege of playing in Belgium at a young age before moving to play in the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, he picked up a severe groin injury and was forced to retire in his early 20s.
Ofei had cracks in his groin a could either go for surgery or stop playing, the then pacey winger opted for the latter and brought an end to a very pre-mature career full of promise.
His late father Eric Asiedu, who was affectionately referred to as ‘Big Boss’, worked in the football ecosystem and spent almost 10 years as the kit manager for Chelsea’s youth team.
Ofei took advantage of his father’s connections in football and his knowledge of the game quickly pivoting to scouting before switching to coaching.
He then started coaching internships at Chelsea and went on to work as a youth coach for Sporting Lokeren and Antwerp. He moved to Portugal and became head coach of Lusitano Ginasio Clube SAD.
After years in Europe, he returned to Ghana to work with the technical directorate of the GFA as a manager for high performance before being appointed as head coach of the Black Satellites.
He joined a Ghana U20 side that had lost to Nigeria in the WAFU sub-regional tournament and as a result couldn’t qualify for the 2023 U20 AFCON. The team were also eliminated at the group stages of the WAFU Zone B Boys Championship in Ivory Coast.
Ofei describes his philosophy as “controlling the game with and without the ball, understanding space-time, awareness, making the right decision, placing the right positions and dominating and dictating the game.”
His mentor is Jose Mourinho (60) but he goes on to add “I’m a more technical coach.” There are some similarities as both retired relatively early from playing to focus on coaching. To Ofei, every world-class coach was once a top youth coach.
He is currently on the journey of climbing to the top as he looks to take Ghana’s youth teams back to the top of the continent after winning the 2023 13th African Games men’s tournament with the Black Satellites.
