Samuel Osei Kuffour is one names you can not ignore when talking about legends of Ghana football,coming from a humble home Kuffour fought off abject poverty and rose from being a “shoe shine boy” to play at the highest level of world football.
Kuffour was born on the 3rd Of September 1973, He started his football career at colt club Fantomas in Kumasi. He then move to Alhaji Grusah’s King Faisal Babies where he was later invited to join the junior national team, the Black Starlets (U-17) .
His exploits in the junior national team earned him a move to AFC Torino in Italy where before he could find his feet he was already on the move.
Sammy joined German giants Bayern Munich where he spent 11 seasons, rising from the youth team to be a prominent first-squad member and became the second Ghanaian player after abedi Pele to lift the UEFA Champions League.
He was an integral part of the squad that won the 2000–01 Champions League, also scoring the winning goal in the 2001 Intercontinental Cup, and being subsequently named man of the match.
He won 17 domestic titles with Bayern Munich and was a huge subject of intense transfer interest from Spanish giants Real Madrid.
This was after eleven years with Bayern but he moved to Italian giant AS Roma, where he had an unsuccessful stint by his own high standards.
National team exploits:
On the national team front, Sammy Kuffour played at every level (U-17, U-20, U-23 and Black Stars) and won medals at the U-17 (gold), a U-20 (silver) and U-23 (bronze) in Barcelona in 1992.
He was a member of Ghana’s team which first qualified for the world cup in Germany 2006 and played in Ghana’s 2-0 defeat to Italy in that competition, unfortunately, that would be his last contribution to his nation.
He was voted BBC African Footballer Of The Year in 2001 and twice came second in the CAF African Player Of The Year award.
Sammy Kuffour after hanging his boots in 2008, like other european footballers stayed in football , working as a football pundit for Africa broadcasting giants Sportsports.
Kuffour during his playing days, had a dream of playing Asante Kotoko but the dream could not materialize as he feared insult from fans because he was too old but he was however able to serve his beloved club in another capacity when he was appointed to serve as a board member for Kotoko.
Now “Sammy Tuga” will now get the chance to lead Kotoko, having been appointed as President of the club. He has been giving executive powers to form a board and a management team.
