Even though Asante Kotoko SC is yet to make the resignation of their coach Dr Prosper Nartey Ogum official, as the management of the club are planning to replace him with former coach Ernest Middendrop Ghsportsnewsgh.com can exclusively report.
Coach Prosper Nartey Ogum on Wednesday afternoon tendered in his resignation letter to the to the club.
Ogum quit the job, barely three weeks for the start of the club’s pre-season activities.
But reasons for his resignation are yet to be known and Asante Kotoko Management are in talks with former coach Ernest Middendrop as his successor.
The experienced German tactician is currently working with Kenpong Football Club Academy a division One club.
Middendorp’s entry into the African game, though, was via Ghana. At Asante Kotoko, where he took charge at the dawn of the millennium, his two years didn’t yield much (a solitary FA Cup title aside), as arch-rivals Hearts of Oak were still dominant and very much in their pomp. Still, he could be credited for building the foundations of the team that countryman Ralf Zumdick would carry to the finals of the now defunct African Cup Winners’ Cup in 2002, and which, exactly a year later, won Kotoko’s first league title in a decade.
Before long, Middendorp was back — this time with Hearts. He lasted even shorter, however, resigning just after he had led the Phobians into the group stage of the inaugural CAF Confederation Cup with an aggregate victory over AS Douanes. Hearts would go on to win the trophy, beating Kotoko in the final. As happened with the Porcupine Warriors, Middendorp departed in a storm, but he was never forgotten — and neither has he.
Middendorp, 61, coached Kotoko from 1999 to 2002 before taking over in Augsburg in 2002 and returned to GPL side Hearts of Oak in 2004.
