Kufuor Stays in Munich After Barcelona Flirt

Ghana international Samuel Kuffour, fined by Bayern Munich earlier this month for having talks with Barcelona while under contract, says he will stay with the German club after all.

"I'm staying in Munich," Kuffour, who said he had a contract with Bayern until 2003, told German television on Monday night. The 24-year-old defender said it had been a difficult decision to pass up a chance to go to Barcelona.

"Everyone wants to play there but it doesn't always work," he said.

Barcelona were reportedly prepared to pay Bayern a transfer fee of 36 million German marks ($16.61 million) but the reigning German champions ruled out a transfer.

"He asked his grandmother and his girlfriend what he should do -- it would have been better if he had asked us instead," Bayern vice-chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said.

Bayern fined Kuffour 10,000 marks for talking to a Barcelona representative earlier this month. Kuffour said he had not yet paid the fine and did not want to accept it.

"I will talk with manager (Uli) Hoeness about it," he said. "I was a little bit foolish." ($1=2.168 German Mark)