Ghanaian international defender Samuel Osei Kuffour of Bayern Munich has minced no words about his desire to win the coveted European Champions League trophy with the newly crowned German champions.

In his eight years at Bayern, Kuffour has won four straight German league tiles, two German Cups and has been omnipresent in the European Champions League, emerging the most capped African in the competition ahead of Nigerian international Nwanko Kanu of Arsenal.

This impressive record notwithstanding, Kuffour still feels he has an unfinished and more important business to accomplish at Bayern. That is to win the European Champions League trophy after making the final stage twice and the semi-finals once in three years.

On Wednesday, Kuffour is likely to line up for the German giants when they play Spanish side Valencia to determine the masters of European club football at the San Siro stadium in Milan. Moments after Bayern clinched the final ticket thanks to a 3-1 aggregate win over Real Madrid, Kuffour was all over the Munich Olympic Stadium soaking the cheers of the fans and celebrating the acquisition of a final place which he says is "every player's dream".

Kuffour says he would approach Wednesday's final with all the seriousness required. Whiles helping the Germans to shed their so close, yet so far tag is a huge motivation, Kuffour has made no secret of why he needs the champions League trophy badly.

"For me the trophy means a lot now," he said. "The fact that I would become only the fifth African to lift it is motivation enough."

The first African to achieve was the Algerian Raber Madjer when he helped FC Porto beat Bayern Munich in the 1987 final. After him, Ghanaian superstar Abedi Ayew Pele won the trophy with Olympic Marseille whiles Nigerians Finidi George and Nwanko Kanu helped Ajax to the Cup in 1995.

Two years ago Kuffour came agonisingly close to joining the elite four only for two quick goals by Bayern Munich to deny him and German team mates in injury time. His tears and desperate beating of the Nou Camp turf with knees on the ground has become the image of the final.

That final, he says, still hurts so he has refused to watch playbacks since and instead he is hoping he can keep a videocassette which would depict images of a smiling Kuffour with the European champions league trophy.

For a player who once shined shoes for a living and who only joined Torino in Italy as an afterthought to the Mohammed Gargo, Emmanuel Duah deal after they won gold with the Ghana U-17 team in 1991, victory on Wednesday would be a tremendous achievement.

It would not only cement his place as one of Africa's all-time greatest exports to Europe, it would also help him regain part his bartered image back home. Though he has always played for the Black Stars with unflinching commitment, recent happenings in Sudan has threatened to cast a slur on his image.

The tube-smashing incident in Sudan during a World Cup qualifier is still under investigation by FIFA but it is his alleged derogatory remarks about Ghanaian journalist as people he can pay comfortably that has endeared him less to an appreciative nation.

Still it is likely a lot of Ghanaians would wish Bayern beat Valencia not because they love the German champions so much but because one of their countrymen would be on parade for Bayern.

In 1993 around the period when Marseille with Abedi Pele in their team beat Milan to win the same trophy,lots of Ghanaians jubilated despite the fact that the three-time African footballer of the Year had threatened to quit the national team. Blood, they say, is thicker than water.