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.
“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.
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.
The Black Queens hosted the 2018 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations but crashed out at the group stage and the team then failed to even qualify for the 2022 edition in Morocco.
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.
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.
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.
Having beaten Namibia 3-1 in the first leg in Accra, the Black Queens held out for a nervy 1-0 defeat 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.
“I’m also human you know,” she reflected on the aggregate win.
“It was a big pressure and you know you need to deliver. Of course it was a big release.”
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.
