Kuffour: 2006 World Cup back-pass a genuine mistake

Former Ghana defender Samuel Osei Kuffour says he has long put his nightmares of the 2006 Fifa World Cup behind him.

The centre-back is widely remembered for a famous back pass-gone-wrong, which led to Vincenzo Iaquinta scoring the second in a 2-0 defeat to Italy.

The game marked Ghana's first ever appearance at the Fifa World Cup, with Kuffour, then a 29-year-old veteran, on the books of Serie A side AS Roma.

“To be frank, I never thought about the back pass again," Kuffour told Citi TV.

"I am a very strong-minded person and because it was a genuine mistake, I just moved on.

"Do you know the number of players who scored an own goals in that tournament?

“I don’t care. A lot of things were said but for me, I moved on and played with Roma and it all went on very well."

Andrea Pirlo had put the Azzurri ahead on 40 minutes in a keenly contested fixture at the Fifa World Cup Stadium in Hannover, with Ghana looking for a way back, before Kuffour's blunder seven minutes to full time effectively put the game beyond reach for the Black Stars.

He continued: “My advice to the young ones is that never ever look down on yourself.

"In football anything can happen but you have to be strong and move on.

"Remember in the game when you score you are the Jesus Christ and when you make a mistake, you are the Satan.”

Kuffour never made a return to the Ghana set-up after the error, watching from the bench as the Black Stars reached the round of 16.