INTERVIEW-Soccer-Desailly confirms intention to coach Ghana

By Kevin Fylan

LUCERNE, Switzerland, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Former France international and World Cup winner Marcel Desailly has confirmed his intention to return to football as coach of Ghana, once current manager Claude LeRoy has finished his "great job".

Desailly, who was born in Ghana before moving to France as a child, retired as a player in 2006 and as spent his time since then as an ambassador for UNICEF and working on other projects, mostly with children.

The 39-year-old, who helped France win the World Cup in 1998 and the European Championship two years later, ruled himself out of the Ghana job when it went to Frenchman LeRoy last year but next time he will be keen to apply.

"My time will come," Desailly told Reuters in an interview on Sunday. "Ghana has a good generation of players. We have Claude LeRoy, who is doing a great job.

"Me, I'm still young. I feel like I need to cross the world. I'm an ambassador of UNICEF. I work with the orphanage. For the moment I need to dedicate myself on the ground to the kids.

"In the future, I will come back into coaching. My target for sure (is Ghana). After LeRoy, my time will come."

Desailly enjoyed a successful career at club level as well as with France, winning the European Cup with Olympique Marseille in 1993 before enjoying long spells with AC Milan and Chelsea before closing out his career in Qatar.

As one of the most high profile and successful foreign imports to the Premier League he urged England not to overreact to their failure to qualify for Euro 2008 by bringing in a quota system.