Accra Hearts of Oak confirms new coach, Sergio as Kenichi’s replacement

Accra Hearts of Oak has confirmed the appointment of Portuguese-born Sergio Daniel Moniz Traguil, following the departure of Japanese-American Kenichi Yatsuhashi.

At a short ceremony at the clubs secretariat on Thursday, the chairman of the Strategic and Management Committee, Mr. Vincent Odotei-Sowah, said the new coach will play a dual role for the club.

“At the moment the acting head of the senior team is Sergio. And at the same time he will be excising supervisory role over the Auroras and the Royal Oaks, the youth teams of the club.

“At the appropriate time the board will review the situation and we will take a substantive decision,” he said.

Sergio was only appointed last week as the head coach of Hearts of Oak’s Youth teams Auroras (U-19).

Mr. Odotei-Sowah explained that it has become necessary because some of the technical team members will be unavailable due to national duties, hence the need to make the appointment.

“It became very apparent that we have to draft Sergio into the senior team, because you are all very aware our assistant coach was going to be away in July, and our team manager and goalkeepers trainer are attached to the various national teams so if we don’t add anybody to the technical team we were going to be in trouble. We had to draft Sergio quickly into the senior team so that we don’t fall off any technical directions in July.” Odotei explained.

He assured the fans of the club that they would perform better in the second half of the league.

“We are going to be very competitive in the second round. And we can guarantee all our supporters that everything that we did in the first round is going to continue.

“We are very confident of our technical team in the second round. We hope Sergio together with his assistant Yaw Preko and the other technical team members, would lead the team to victory.

“We believe our supporters would look back and know that we have taken the best decision in the interest of the club.”

Coach Sergio said he was equal to the task at hand and would not be under any pressure.

“I have to be ready and I am ready. I don’t feel any pressure. The only pressure that I know in football is the one that we would give to our opponents.”