She holds the record as the first human to have played three significant roles on the football field.
She has proved to be athletic, smart and has an all- rounder personality.
When footballers retire from playing, the only better way most of them think could get them onto the field again is to become a coach but former defender for Ghana’s women national team, the Black Queens, did something different from what every footballer would do after retirement.
This is Coach Mercy Tagoe-Quarcoo, the former professional player who moved from wearing the football kits to donning referee kits.
She is the only former player who has experienced life on the level of a referee and a coach.
Apart from her, no woman has played, refereed and coached. No man has had her experience on the field.
The current Black Queens Coach was seen whistling in highly profiled Ghana Premier League games for years and received her FIFA badge in 2005.
“The worst game I have ever officiated was between Zatuna FC and Real Tamale United in Sunyani. It was a decider and the loser was going to be relegated so you can imagine.
“But a game I officiated between Kotoko and Kessben FC at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium was my best of all, I was proud of myself as a referee after the game because of the performance I put up,’’ she revealed.
She was the first Ghanaian referee to officiate at the FIFA Women’s World Cup in China and raised the bar for African referees in the 2010 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Germany.
“The road to becoming a referee as a footballer was funny and unpredictable, the idea of training to be a professional referee came to mind when I met Ghanaian female FIFA Referee Christian Tetteh in Tema,” she recounted.
The wonderful woman, who featured for Ghana in 1999 and 2003 Women’s World Cup, quit refereeing in 2012 due the violence in that department in football.
The former Bluna FC player holds CAF License C, B and A in coaching.
She started her coaching career with a colt team, Prisco Minus FC then to a second division side Gye Nyame FC, all in Tema.
Also, she managed Amidaus Professionals and coached Halifax Ladies in the women’s premier league which is the first as a Ghanaian.
She took over Black Queens in 2018 from Mas-ud Didi Dramani.
The black Queens coach did not only succeed on the field of play but she was able to blend her work with managing a family as well. She is married and blessed with two children.
The wife of a Senior Executive of the Bank of Ghana, Daniel Quarcoo is decorated with WAFU Zone B gold and bronze medals. She is also Turkish Women’s Cup Tournament silver medalist as a coach.
The CAF Instructor is a senior fire officer with the rank of Divisional Officer Grade 3 with the Ghana National Fire Service.
She holds a degree in Guidance and Counseling and a Diploma in Coaching from the University of Education, Winneba.
She was born on the 5th of February 1978 in Tema .
