Paa Kwesi Fabin

Samuel Paa Kwesi Fabin (born 25 March 1959) is a Ghanaian professional football manager.

He is the current coach of the Ghana national U-23 team.

He attended Winneba Specialist Training College where he completed as a trained teacher with a diploma in physical education and sports in 1987.

Prior to that he had his secondary school education from Ebenezer Secondary School in Accra.

He developed the love for coaching after his encounter with veteran Ghanaian coaches coach Sam Arday, Cecil Jones Attuquayefio, Jim Amoah and Oko Aryee whilst studying in Winneba.

After completing his teacher training education he went to teach at the Obuasi Secondary Technical School whilst serving also as the head coach for the school's sports and football teams.

He led the school to win the Ashanti School football Competition, making them the first school outside Kumasi to have clinched the title.

He later went to the University of Cape Coast to further his education and knowledge in sports.

He completed the university with a degree in health physical education recreation, management and psychology in 1997.

After completing the university Fabin was posted to Osei Kyeretwie Secondary School (OKESS) where he served also as a physical education teacher and the head coach for the school's sports and football teams.

Whilst at the school he nurtured future Ghanaian international footballer like Sulley Muntari, John Mensah, Kwadwo Poku, Stephen Oduro, Lawrence Kianya and William Thompson.

He led the team to a successive 6 times Inter-Schools Milo Competition titles from 1998 to 2004.

His success at OKESS attracted Asante Kotoko to appoint him as coach of their youth team in 1999.

He served in that capacity till 2002 nurturing footballers like Francis Akwafo, Alex Asamoah, Osei Kwadwo and Eric Nii Baah.

Fabin was promoted to the role of assistant coach to Ernst Middendorp in 2002.

Under Middendorp, Fabin won the Ghanaian Premier League in 2003.

Middendorp was replaced by Hans Dieter-Schmidt but Fabin was maintained in the assistant coach role.

Under Hans Dieter-Schmidt, he also won the Ghanaian Premier League in 2005, and helped Kotoko to place 2nd in the 2004 CAF Confederation Cup after losing to their arch rivals Accra Hearts of Oak.

He left Asante Kotoko in 2005.

Fabin was signed his first professional coaching deal in 2005 and was appointed as head coach of Berekum Arsenal.

He is credited by Ghanaian international footballer Emmanuel Agyeman-Badu as the coach who engineered his move to the Berekum-based club and nurtured him during his youthful days as a footballer.

He qualified the team to the 2006 CAF Confederation Cup but were eliminated in the second round by Petro de Luanda of Angola.

He coached the club until 2007.

Fabin moved from Berekum Arsenal to Kpando Heart of Lions in 2007, He led the team to win the MTN Top 4 championship and the SWAG Cup both in 2009.

They finished in 2nd place in the 2007–2008 season and 3rd in the 2008–2009 season with Hearts of Oak winning the league in both seasons.

He was later voted Ghana Premier League 2009 coach of the year.

Within the two years he coached them, the team finished in the Top 4 of the Ghana premier league.

He helped the team to qualify to the 2009-2010 CAF Confederation Cup but were eliminated.

After his exploits at Kpando Hearts of Lions, Fabin was signed by his old club Asante Kotoko as head coach in September 2009.

After a bad run of performances, Fabin was sacked in April 2010 with six matches to the end of the 2009–2010 season leaving at the point when the team was 10th on the league table.

After losing his job at arch rivals Asante Kotoko, Fabin signed for Accra Hearts of Oak in June 2010 and led the club to win the MTN Top 4 championship in 2010.

Fabin left the club by mutual agreement in January 2011 after a run of poor performances, making it worse when they lost to Real Tamale United in the opening day of the second round of fixtures in a home match at Ohene Djan Sports Stadium, making it the first time in 33years Real Tamale United had won a match against Hearts at that stadium.

There were calls by supporters that he should sacked even before he left the club.

Fabin signed for Ghana Division One side Wassaman United in March 2011 after unsuccessful seasons with both Asante Kotoko and Accra Hearts of Oak.

Fabin guided the team to qualify into the Ghana Premier League for the first time in their history.

After helping Wassaman into the Premier League, Fabin made statements on radio that both Kotoko and Hearts don't give their coaches enough time to help them build a title winning side.

He was however relieved of his duty before the new season started and replaced with Herbert Addo.

In September 2011, Kpando Heart of Lions announced that Fabin has assumed the role of head coach on a temporary basis with the hope of securing the Ghana national under-17 football team, the Black starlets head coach role which he had applied for.

He is a former coach Ghana Premier League teams; Asante Kotoko, Accra Hearts of Oak and Aduana Stars He previously coached the Ghana national U-17 team leading them to 2nd place in the 2017 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations.

Fabin is a native of Elmina in the Central Region but was born in Tarkwa in the Western region and grew up in Kumasi, Ashanti region.