Sports News of Monday, 3 July 2023

Source: ghanasoccernet.com

Stephen Appiah explains how Black Stars succeeded despite torrid times

Former Black Stars captain, Stephen Appiah Former Black Stars captain, Stephen Appiah

Former Black Stars captain Stephen Appiah has revealed measures he put in place to make sure the team succeeded when it faced torrid times under his leadership.

According to him, there were some players who were reluctant to play for the team due to the absence of motivation.

However, Appiah claimed to have taken it upon himself to lay down measures to make such reticent players feel comfortable triggering unintended patriotism in them to represent the country.

According to him he did it out of love for the nation and was not directed by any authority for such gestures.

“At a point, nobody wanted to come and play for the Black Stars; maybe people have forgotten. There was no social media, so there are many things have forgotten or don’t know about," he told JoySports’ Prime Take.

“I paid the flight of some [of my colleagues] and I was giving people bonuses. I mean I’m not running away from it and it’s not like somebody forced me to do that but at times that."

“We had to do all these sacrifices for them to come and play because at a point no one wanted to play.”

Stephen Appiah succeeded in leading Ghana to their first-ever World Cup appearance in 2006 and ended his international career with 16 goals in 69 appearances.