Bayern Reject Barca Bid for Kufuor

According to Eurosport Text-TV, Barcelona has made a bid for Kufuor to fill the centre-back position, which at the moment is being taken care of by French midfielder, Emmanuel Petit.

Bayern Munchen has said a definite NO to the deal, saying Kufuor is not for sale.

Hoeness: Kuffour is not for sale

Good defenders are hard to come by these days-at least, for semi-transfer fee. The people responsible at Bayern Munich can sing a song about this when one considers Rio Ferdinand, the man that one would have liked to have seen as a new player in Saedener Street,but who then transfered from West Ham United to leeds United for 55 million Marks instead.

One person who is definately an expert in his feild, is Sammy Kuffuor. This one seems to be well aware of in Spain as well, as the vice-champion's Barcelona are interested in signing the Bayern Munich defender.

As the spanish specialist magazine Sport reported on Wednesday, the 24-year-old Ghanaian is on top of Barca-coach, Llorenc Serra Ferrer's wish list. Kuffour should help in solving the Catalan defence problems.

In response to the report in the magazine. Bayern manager Uli Hoeness declared his player as "not for sale".

He told the magazine in a telephone interview: "We haven't recieved any official enquiry from barcelona either" Since the beginning of the season, the German champions have also been looking for another defender as a successor to Markus Babbel who transfered to liverpool.

Barca's vice-president, Angel Fernandez, has confirmed that the club is interested in Kuffour. Barcelona enquired about a transfer fee for the player two weeks ago, but got a refusal from Bayern instead. Kuffour is still under contract in Munich until 2003.