Ode to the Brightest Star - The El Capitano (1)

This is a piece many would contend is long over-due
but as the adage goes, “Better late than never,” and with this I look to and
hope to feverishly rally soccer-loving fans to join me to offer a thunderous round
of applause to the biggest “Black Star” of the last decade-and-half gone by.



His softer and
humanitarian side in recent times culminated in efforts at his Stepapp Foundation,
investing several
thousand dollars in building a maternity home and community library as his own
way of giving back to his largely deprived community.



So he stepped
up, positioned the ball on the spot, walked back, and then blasted a
thunderbolt into the opponent’s net, Africa celebrated but he after beating his
chest a number of times, gesticulates to the crowd to cheer on his team.



A recall of
events from the soccer city stadium in South
Africa, when after injury time Ghana
was drawing 1-1 with Uruguay
in the quarter finals. More significantly after Suarez’s handball and subsequent
miss by Gyan, Appiah was the second player to score his penalty for mother Ghana.
Who knew that was his last act in a Black Stars shirt?



His national
team career, if anything at all, had ended with a goal at the World Cup, so I
ask; what better way to finish an illustrious career that spanned about 16
years since his debut for the Black Stars on his 16th birthday when Ghana played
Benin on 24 December
1996?



“Who is that sakor-
headed guy in the 10 shirt for Ghana?” I was asked by a friend
at a time that the Black Stars were playing their Burkinabe counterparts in a
2006 World Cup qualifier. I in turn asked,
“What about him?” the response, “He
looks to me like a dedicated leader who keeps urging his team on.” Without
fear of contradiction, I say that and many more attributes are what have
characterized the over 50 times that he has donned the national colours.



Colours that he
defended so passionately at one time even at the expense of his career, he
indeed is a star that outshone his peers and one to be eulogized in all
respects. He is Stephen Appiah,
ex-skipper of the senior national team, the Black Stars.



From humble
beginnings in the slums of Chorkor, a community in the capital city of Accra he had
assisted in several ways, Appiah rose to
lofty heights, thanks to the soccer ball, and his exploits transcend the shore of Ghana
to Europe and across the four cardinal
directions of the globe.



His career
trajectory clearly puts out how vibrant a youth system Ghana’s football was and
still is, having kicked off his national team career at the Starlets (U-17)
level. At junior level, he played a key role in the Starlets side that won the 1995
FIFA U-17 World Championship in Ecuador, and at the youth level, moving on to play
with
Satellites team that placed fourth during the 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship and
the Ghana team
that made the quarter finals at the same level during the 1999 championship.




The now ex-skipper of Ghana's
national team joined the Black Meteors team to the Athens
Olympics, under Mariano Baretto, during which time he was named the most
outstanding player after scoring a screamer against Italy in a group game. He
was subsequently voted as one of the 10 All-Stars of
that Olympic Football Tournament.



Then came the
big one; after years of being in the wilderness of qualification for arguably
the biggest football competition on planet earth, the man who has become known
as the Tornado for his pace, poise,
precision and accuracy on any part of the pitch, led Ghana to beat Burkina
Faso, walk over South Africa and sealed a landmark qualification for the World
Cup in Germany with a display fit for the gods, in far away Praia, Cape Verde
Islands.



His exploits at
winning any laurels with the team may record a zero, but his commitment to the
cause of the team and utmost dedication to the joy of the generality of
Ghanaians, would most certainly be pegged at 100%.



He led a
relatively weak Ghana team
to Egypt in 2006 where they
had a disappointing tournament - exiting in the first round after beating Senegal
and losing out surprisingly to Zimbabwe.
Worthy of note however, is the fact that he went to the tournament knowing full
well that he was injured.



This perhaps led
to allusions by a section of the Ghanaian populace accusing him of having some
blind loyalty. Suffice it to say that his actions led to a deep-rooted
conception that he was perhaps the most patriotic member of the team, at a time
when his other colleagues had absented themselves with the excuse of injury.



Maybe as a
reward of sorts, Appiah was selected in the 2006 African
Nations Cup All-Star Team of the Tournament by the Confederation of African Football
in February 2006.




Then later in the year at the World Cup in Germany, he put up a Man of the Match
performance in all three group games
and the round of 16 game against Brazil – who kicked out the Black Stars. His
performances paid off when the man who stood tall as the star player and
driving force of Ghana's 2006 World Cup campaign scored a spot kick against the
US and deservedly so, won the Man of The Match award on the occasion.



By his action on
and off the pitch, he garnered much critical acclaim for his ball distribution,
aggressive dribbling and creativity so well did he play that even against other
star players like Francesco
Totti, Landon
Donovan, Pavel Nedved
and Ronaldinho, he often stole the show in head-to-head
match ups.





His trophy
cabinet with the national team may record zero but his commitment and love in
championing the national cause and bringing joy to the faces of the generality
of Ghanaians would undoubtedly record a 100%.



In part two of
this article, join me to explore Appiah’s exploits outside the shores of Ghana and to
take a sneak preview into his humanitarian work with the Stepapp Foundation and
as a befitting farewell treat, eulogize the el capitano in a few poetic lines.
STAY TUNED!!



By Shaban Barani Alpha

newcguide@gmail.com