According to former Black Stars captain Stephen Appiah, there was a time when no player wanted to represent the senior national team. Ghana was led by Stephen Appiah to its first FIFA World Cup in Germany in 2006.
On JoySports’ Prime Take with Muftawu Nabila Abdulai, the former Olympian remarked,
“Today, I am sitting here as a proud former player of the Black Stars because I sacrificed to make others happy. I really didn’t want to say things like this, but you see, sometimes things slip up in talks. Sincerely, I didn’t want to discuss it at all, and I’ve never done so before.
I played in the World Cup, and at the end of the day, I’m sitting here as a proud former player because I did it from the heart.
You may need to make some sacrifices in order to inspire others to give their all. He said, “You have to make people happy, and that’s what I did.
Many contend that the Black Stars have turned into a cash cow and a platform for players to advertise themselves for visibility abroad. According to the former Juventus and Fernabache player, no player wanted to be linked with it until it became the pride of many.
No one wanted to play for the Black Stars at one point; perhaps people have forgotten. Since there was no social media, many things have been forgotten or are unknown.
I paid for some of my coworkers’ flights, and I was giving them bonuses. Even though I’m not fleeing from anything and no one has ever forced me to do it, I do it occasionally.
At one point, nobody wanted to participate, so we had to make all these sacrifices to get people to show up and play, he continued.
When asked his reasoning, he responded, “… at the end who benefited? Me!. Finally, I was given the opportunity to compete in the World Cup. I didn’t see it as a terrible thing since it allowed me to fulfill a dream of mine, which was to play at the World Cup.
You see, some sacrifices must come from the heart if they are to be worthwhile. Asamoah Gyan organized the entire flight for us to come, and we traveled with him to a match versus Congo. Nobody compelled him to make the sacrifice, just as no one forced me to fly the players home and pay their bonuses, but I was considering a bigger picture.
“We traveled to Slovenia, where we stayed in our own clothes, so I went to a store; Mr. Kudjoe Fianoo and Alex Asante can both attest to this. I visited a mall to get Adidas clothing for all the Slovenian players and staff, so these are the things that are normal.
“At the time, I was playing professionally, and as a professional, you think it’s unfortunate that you’ve established a name in Italy and then you’ll be with the national team and they’re wearing their own clothes at the national team camp, which didn’t seem pleasant.
I thought, “We have to be in uniform because I played for Udinese and I was playing for Parma and it was so nice so when we go to camp we are in uniform, everybody dressed the same, it looks nice. So I decided to buy the clothes for us to look uniform and I didn’t do that because I wanted something, but if it looks bad I’ll be part of that image.
“You see, we do certain things and then it will, I think, when you do good, good follows you when you do bad, bad follows you,” he said”.
