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Like a Swiss chocolatier refining the finest cocoa beans from Ghana, Nora Hauptle is on a mission to cultivate the country’s raw female talent and take the Black Queens back to the top of African football.<\/b><\/p>\n
“I always tell them that I’m closing the circle because probably the cacao was exported to Switzerland, we add the milk and now I bring back the chocolate,” the Swiss coach told BBC Sport Africa.<\/p>\n
Ghana were once viewed as Nigeria’s main challengers for dominance on the continent, qualifying for three Women’s World Cups in a row between 1999 and 2007, but then endured a devastating fall from grace.<\/a><\/p>\n The Black Queens hosted the 2018 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations but crashed out at the group stage<\/a> and the team then failed to even qualify for the 2022 edition in Morocco.<\/p>\n They had only played one match in the entirety of 2022 when Hauptle joined late that year, initially as a technical advisor for the Under-20 team at the Women’s U20 World Cup.<\/p>\n She then took charge of the senior team in January 2023 and transformed the side’s fortunes, as the Black Queens won Hauptle’s first nine games without conceding – scoring 31 goals in the process.<\/p>\n Ironically, her greatest achievement to date came with her first defeat, which was inflicted in the final round of qualifying for the 2024 Women’s Nations Cup.<\/p>\n Having beaten Namibia 3-1 in the first leg in Accra, the Black Queens held out for a nervy 1-0 defeat<\/a> in the return fixture – still enough to take them back to the tournament for the first time in six years, something that brought Hauptle to tears.<\/p>\n “I’m also human you know,” she reflected on the aggregate win.<\/p>\n “It was a big pressure and you know you need to deliver. Of course it was a big release.”<\/p>\n Overseeing Ghana’s return to the finals will be Hauptle’s next challenge – but the 40-year-old has plenty of experience to draw on, having trodden a varied path since hanging up her own boots.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n