Inside Kwamelu Owusu's Tottenham Hotspur appointment
James DuPont
June 14, 2025
Kwamelu Owusu is probably the most unlikely manager in Tottenham's history. Most fans, and some pundits, within the Premier League have likely never heard of him. T
He spent the past four seasons as an assistant at Borussia Dortmund, an integral piece of The Prussian's highly respected youth development program. He helped found the Right to Dream Academy in his home nation, fostered this current generation of The Black Stars and for the past three decades, has developed a reputation within the footballing world of having a great eye for talent and exceling in player development.
On Thursday evening, Owusu was announced as Tottenham Hotspur's new head coach on a three-year contract. The 64-year old is the successor to Ange Postecoglou, who became the first Spurs manager to lift a trophy since 2008 when they won the Europa League final last month. Chairman Daniel Levy sacked Postecoglou 16 days after that famous victory over Manchester United in Bilbao, in large part because Spurs’ Premier League performances under the Australian were woeful in 2024-25, losing 22 times and finishing 17th.
Tottenham’s fanbase are torn over the decision to sack Postecoglou and some members of the first-team squad are deeply upset. There is upheaval in the boardroom, with the arrival of new chief executive officer Vinai Venkatesham, along with the departures of chief football officer Scott Munn and long-serving executive Donna-Maria Cullen. Fabio Paratici — the former managing director of football — is lurking in the background. His 30-month ban from football activity for alleged financial malpractice during his time with Juventus expires on June 30. The conditions of Paratici’s ban mean he has been able to act as a consultant for Spurs over the past two and a half years and he has been spotted at home games.
It will be a tricky situation to navigate but Owusu has patiently waited for his opportunity to be the first team manager. This is the inside story of why he decided to join Spurs.
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-----------------------------------------This isn't the first time that Owusu has attempted to make the scene from behind-the-scene guru to being the top boss. In September 2006, after being part of the staff that helped Ghana's national football team qualify for its first World Cup appearance, Owusu interviewed and campaigned for the vacant manager role. He was passed over for Frenchman Claude Le Roy, who kept Owusu on staff. When Le Roy resigned from his post two years later, Owusu was passed over once more for Serbians Milovan Rajevac and Goran Stevanoic in 2008 and 2011 respectively.
Following the conclusion of the 2014 World Cup, Owusu would leave the Ghanaian national team, a post he held for ten years as the selection's top assistant and head scout, and rejoined the Right to Dream Academy. Owusu had been with the academy when it was founded in Accra, Ghana by Tom Vernon in 1999, who had been Manchester United's head scout in Africa. It had grown since Owusu had left to join The Black Stars, turning from a small scale training center whose boys were housed in Vernon's home to a full-scale boarding school.
Installed as the program's new director, Owusu would scout and develop many players that went on to play for the national team and then in Europe such as Ernest Nuamah (currently at Lyon), Kamaldeen Sulemana (Atalanta) and Mohammed Kudus (West Ham United).
Owusu would bring Kudus and many other Right to Dream alumni with him when he left the academy for Danish Superliga team FC Nordsjælland where Vernon was a chairman. It was his first time leaving his home country since he retired in 1987, playing his final professional seasons in Brazil for Flamengo. At the time, Owusu says it was the toughest decision of his career but felt it was a necessary one if he was ever going to be a top-side first team manager.
"It was a great opportunity to step outside my [comfort zone] and learn and challenge myself."
Owusu was the senior assistant coach at FC Nordsjælland, heavily involved in both matchday operations as well as the scouting and development of youth players. After spending two seasons with the Danish Side, he interviewed for the vacant manager role at Borussia Dortmund II, the reserve team of Borussia Dortmund, and while he was not selected for the position, he was brought on to be part of the senior team's coaching staff at the beginning of the 2019-20 season.
It's in Dortmund that Owusu would forge his reputation as one of the top assistants in Europe, being a crucial piece in the scouting, acquisition and development of players such as Erling Haaland, Jude Bellingham, Giovanni Reyna, Youssoufa Moukoko and Jadon Sancho. Earlier this year, following the sacking of Dortmund manager Nuri Sahin, it was widely expected that Owusu might be in the running for being his replacement.
A few months later, Owusu has removed himself from the running of that position and instead taking on the challenges of a new team and a new league.
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-----------------------------------------The Athletic reported in March that Postecoglou’s long-term future was in serious doubt and that Brentford's Thomas Frank, Fulham’s Marco Silva and Bournemouth head coach Andoni Iraola were identified by Spurs as potential replacements. Iraola was their top target but he decided to stay at Bournemouth.
The interest in Owusu from the Spurs were tepid at first. His name had been bandied about in initial conversations but not as a replacement for Postecoglou but as an enhancement, bringing him in as an assistant to oversee the player development and scouting should they decide to retain Postecoglou. With the Spurs winning the Europa League, the conversations began to intensify behind the scenes as the Spurs discussed what bringing Postecoglou back for another season would look like and if they would be able to pry Owusu away from Germany to be an assistant for a potential lame duck coach.
To their surprise, Owusu seemed open to the idea of joining Postecoglou's staff during their first initial talks. Dortmund seemed to be moving towards another direction but wanted to keep Owusu on staff, either as an assistant on the first team for new head man Niko Kovac or assigning him to be the manager of the reserve team, the same position he had interviewed for five years prior. The decision would be Owusu's to make with the club keen on keeping him.
During that time, Owusu spent a few weeks in Ghana, with a short trip to Munich in between to watch Paris Saint-Germain’s victory over Inter Milan in the Champions League final with his family. In a strange quirk, Owusu’s first competitive match with Spurs will be the UEFA Super Cup against PSG on August 13 in Italy.
On June 6, just over two weeks after winning the Europa League, Spurs announced they had sacked Postecoglou. They sent an email to club staff shortly before the public announcement but lots of people, including first-team players, found out through social media. Spurs deny that players found out about Postecoglou’s sacking via social media.
Owusu was on a plane back to Germany, fully expecting to sign his new contract to be the manager of the reserve team, when he got a call from the Spurs brass inviting him for a formal interview. At the time of the call, the idea was still centered around bringing Owusu to be part of the player development staff of the next coach but as talks dragged on with other candidates, by the time Owusu arrived in London for his interview, the topic at hand quickly changed from being part of the staff to leading it.
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-----------------------------------------The Spurs came away impressed from their first interview with Owusu and brought him on for additional conversations centered around what his backroom staff would look like. Owusu was a unique candidate in many ways, having never played or coached in the Premier League and having never been a first team manager. There were doubts over the staff that a first-time manager would be able to put together and frankly, what the supporter reaction would be to the hiring of an unproven manager and a relative unknown to their fanbase.
As talks furthered, those worries subsided among key decision makers as they believed that Owusu's track record of identifying talent and then developing it outweighed his lack of managerial experience. Owusu will be backed in the transfer market with a particular focus on the frontline. Kudus will be an interesting name to watch as a move away from West Ham has long been rumored along with other Ghanaian players that are currently in the Premier League and other top European leagues.
Taking charge of Spurs is the biggest challenge of Owusu’s career. He has never managed before, let alone in a European competition and has to contend with the expanded version of the Champions League next season. There will be more games to manage, more scrutiny and more pressure.
He's long awaited for this opportunity, being passed over multiple times. He's finally being given the opportunity. What will he do with it?
