Ghana sit bottom of their Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifying group without a head coach after Carlos Queiroz left by mutual agreement on 1 October.
The Ghana Football Association (GFA) announced the decision on Thursday, two days after the Black Stars lost a two-goal lead and went down 4-2 to The Gambia at the Accra Sports Stadium. Ghana had opened the campaign with a 2-0 defeat to Côte d’Ivoire in Bouaké on 24 September.
The losses leave Ghana without a point after two of six Group C matches. Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia and Somalia make up the rest of the group, and only the top two will reach the finals in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, which run from 19 June to 17 July 2027. Qualifying resumes in the 9 to 17 November international window, giving the GFA about six weeks to find a replacement. Ghana missed the 2025 finals in Morocco after going through their qualifying campaign without a win.
In his own statement, issued through the GFA, the 73-year-old Portuguese said the decision had not been easy and that recent results contributed to it. He also said “the necessary conditions were not fully established” during his time in charge. The GFA thanked him for his professionalism and said it would announce the team’s technical direction in due course. It did not say whether it would name an interim coach.
The exit closes a second spell that lasted one month. Queiroz first took the job in April, about 10 weeks before the World Cup, after the GFA parted company with Otto Addo following friendly defeats to Austria and Germany in March. He took Ghana out of Group L, which also included England, Croatia and Panama, as one of the eight best third-placed teams. Colombia then beat them 1-0 in the round of 32.
He left after the tournament, only for the GFA to bring him back on an interim basis on 2 September.
Scoring was a problem throughout. Before the Gambia match, Ghana had managed eight shots on target in five competitive games under Queiroz, according to Flashscore data. In Bouaké, Malick Yalcouyé scored before half-time and captain Franck Kessié converted a second-half penalty, handing Hervé Renard a winning return as Côte d’Ivoire coach.
Queiroz, a former Real Madrid coach and Manchester United assistant, has also managed Portugal, Iran, Colombia, Egypt and Oman. His departure from Ghana is his second exit by mutual consent this year, after the Oman Football Association ended his contract in March.
Ghana had been scheduled to close the current international window with a friendly against Morocco in Tangier on 4 October.
