Sports News of Thursday, 10 June 2010

Source: Ameyaw Debrah

Samuel Osei Kuffour on Supersport World Cup Panel

The FIFA 2010 World Cup running from June 11 to July 11is the pride of the continent and SuperSport will broadcast football’s greatest event like never before. Not only will SuperSport screen every one of the 64 matches live on DStv, but the action will be supplemented by expert analysis, world class magazine programming and breaking football news.

In-house analysts will include African football giant Kalusha Bwalya, former England international John Barnes and Edgar Davids of Holland and Tottenham Hotspurs and now Ghanaian defender, Samuel Osei Kuffuor. Other pundits will feature SuperSport’s regular guests, among them Ernst Middendorp, Gary Mabbutt, Gary Bailey and Daniel Amokachi.

Samuel Osei Kuffour known for his great physical power, is best remembered for his time with Bayern Munich, with whom he played for over a decade.

A Ghana international for 13 years, Kuffour won his first cap as a 17-year old, when Ghana played Sierra Leone on 28 November 1993. He had previously been part of every Ghanaian national team: junior, youth and Olympic level, and became the full squad’s captain at the age of 23.

Kuffour burst onto the international scene as a 13-year old defender. At junior level, he was a member of the Ghana side that won the 1991 FIFA U-17 World Championship in Italy, and the team that was runner-up to Nigeria in the 1993 FIFA U-17 World Championship in Japan. At youth level, he appeared with the side that finished second to Brazil during the 1993 FIFA World Youth Championship in Australia.

Olympic-wise, Kuffour became the youngest Olympic Football Champion of all-time, when he pocketed bronze at the 1992 Olympics with Ghana just before his 16th birthday. He was also a member of the Ghana team that made the quarterfinal at the same level in 1996.

Kuffour also made one appearance for his country at the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals, against Italy. After a costly mistake in that first match, a 2–0 loss, he was dropped for the next three matches, as Ghana bowed out in the round-of-16 match against Brazil.

On 12 January 2007, the Confederation of African Football voted Kuffour as a member of the Top 30 African Players of All-Time.