Former Black Stars player Stephen Appiah has told the moving tale of how the first player to captain Ghana at a World Cup came from a less prestigious neighborhood, Chorkor.
Stephen Appiah, who developed his football abilities on the sandy fields of Chorkor, admitted he never imagined he would someday lead Ghana as its first World Cup captain.
He claimed to have encountered many excellent players on his path to fame, but he never gave up on his goal of reaching the pinnacle of his profession.
During a tennis clinic in Chorkor, the former Juventus player recounted an emotional anecdote about how he occasionally left training without eating with several aspiring tennis players.
“It is sometimes difficult to even get up and go and play tennis because sometimes your mother doesn’t even have money for your transportation,” Stephen Appiah said.
He added, “If we had lost hope and felt weary, we wouldn’t be here speaking. We’ve done everything before but we just wanted to play football. We met many players but nobody knew that one day a boy from Chorkor will captain Ghana at the World Cup.
“I don’t have to talk for even a minute because you know my story and me standing here alone should be a motivation for you. Your generation is lucky because you have mobile phones and I believe you guys will make it than us,” the former Black Stars captain said.
In 2006, Stephen Appiah led the Black Stars in their first World Cup appearance.
