"Our biggest problem came every evening when we team officials had to head off and block lots of girls sent to distract our players . . . Then, prior to the match, every player had to show his passport to the referee and on top of that his captain . . . had to confirm to the referee the identity of all his players."

The speaker is current Ghana coach, Italian Beppe Dossena, and his remarks, in a recent interview with sports daily Corriere Dello Sport, refer to his side's preparations for a historic 3-1 away win against Cameroon in Duala last October.

Dossena (40) is a former Bologna, Torino, Udinese and Sampdoria player who was capped 38 times for Italy.

Since he retired from professional football in 1992, Dossena has been a regular figure in and around the football scene, albeit wearing a variety of hats. By turns, he has been youth team manager at Lazio; a Roma club director; coach at third division Triestina; a column writer for Corriere Della Sera and the weekly Guerin Sportivo; and a television pundit with nationwide channels, Rete 4 and Telemontecarlo.

During the last few years of his footballing career, Dossena also enrolled at university, picking up a degree in Political Sciences before going on to do courses at Milan's Bocconi Economics Institute.

No one who regularly met Dossena during his post-player peregrinations could have much doubt about his native wit and intelligence. Only one question really ever asked itself: what project will he focus his energy and enthusiasm on ?

A few days before the World Cup last summer, a chance encounter at Rome's Fiumicino airport with a players' agent, Alessandro Canovi, opened an unexpected door. He had been intrigued to hear that Canovi had received a mandate from the Ghana FA to look for candidates for the job of national coach.

"I'll apply for it," snapped Dossena. By the end of July, he was summoned to Accra, Ghana for a final interview. An original list of 19 candidates had been whittled down to two - Dossena and former Dutch international Wim Rijsbergen, with the final nod going to the Italian who was already known to many of the Ghana officials from previous visits made in his role of Lazio youth team coach.

Once installed as coach, not only to the senior team but also to the Olympic, under-20 and under17 sides, Dossena soon came face to face with the difficult realities of coaching in Africa.

In a memorable address at a coaching seminar in Paris last summer, Frenchman Philippe Troussier (coach to South Africa during the World Cup) told his audience of journalists and international coaches that one of the biggest problems facing a coach in Africa concerns food, or the lack of it.

"It's very simple. You find that your young players simply do not get enough to eat," said Troussier.

Dossena concurs, describing his work with the youth teams as "totally mind-opening" and admitting that he finds it difficult to relate to the problems of his peer group back in Europe.

"I see things there in Ghana that are so basic, people who don't have electricity and water let alone a car, but people who have an extraordinary capacity for adapting . . . and who have an amazing humility . . . The younger players say to me `coach, there are too many of us in my home'; `coach, I eat only once a day'; `coach, take me back to Europe with you'. For these kids, Europe has become the promised land."

Ghana has indeed thrown up role models for these youngsters, players such as Abedi Pele (Olympique Marseilles and Torino), Mohammed Gargo (Udinese), Alex Nyarko (Karlsruhe), Sam Kuffour Osei (Bayern Munich), Charles Akunnor (Fortuna Cologne) and others who have all shown themselves capable of playing in Europe's most demanding leagues.

Before they make it into the European elite, however, the youngsters have to fight their way through the reality of soccer in Ghana which sees an under-20 player earn an average of £100 a year.

Funds are spectacularly scarce. For that 3-1 win against Cameroon last October, Dossena and his 25-strong delegation of players and helpers had to travel to their hotel in Duala in a 10-seater bus. Worse was to come when the bus went missing immediately after the match leaving Dossena and helpers standing outside the stadium, literally standing guard in a circle around the team's equipment and personal belongings. Fortunately, the bus arrived soon after.

Despite all the difficulties, Dossena is optimistic about his adopted country's possibilities.

"The Ghanese are tougher, I'm not saying stronger, but tougher than Cameroon or Nigerian players, for example, while they are instinctively talented with the ball at their feet . . . If they get to play against the best more often and learn to concentrate, then we can go right to the top . . .