Former Black Stars captain Stephen Appiah officially ended his illustrious playing career for Ghana Saturday with a testimonial game played at the Accra Sports Stadium.

Two all it ended in a game that featured most of the soccer greats and Stars of old in the country and the world at large.

Appiah opened the scoring for the Appiah XI side in the first half but his Asamoah Gyan pulled even for the Black Stars side later on.

Bernard Acheampong and Baffour Gyan also scored for the Black Stars and Appiah XI respectively after coming on much later in the game.

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The man

Stephen Appiah was born in the Accra Suburb of Chorkor on 24 December, 1980.

Qualities as a footballer

The former Black stars skipper was a box-to-box midfielder: Such midfielders dribble and tackle well at the same. He is a free kick expert and a good passer of the ball.

Football career

He played colts football for Mighty Victory and made it to the limelight when his side took on Accra Hearts of Oak in a game he thrilled the fans of the Phobians. This influenced the decision of the Hearts of Oak management at the time to negotiate for his transfer to the club.

He became an instant hit when he joined Hearts of Oak in 1995 and in 1996 he masterminded their FA Cup triumph and eventually won the Most Valuable Player of the competition. In the 1996/97 season he helped Hearts of Oak to win the league title.

His move abroad

Appiah’s fantastic moments caught the attention of several European clubs but it was Udinese that finally got his signature in 1997.

He moved on to Parma in 2000 and had a loan stint with Brescia in the 2002-03 season, before he ultimately joined Juventus, who were the defending Serie A champions at the time. Appiah became the fans favourites at Juventus, playing as many as 30 Serie A games in his maiden season. At Juventus he got the nickname Tornado after he had a magnificent game in a snowy weather condition.

Transfer to Fenerbache

The Turkish giants paid 8 million Euros for the signature of Stephen Appiah. He had a splendid season with them winning the Turkcell Super Cup and Turkish Super Cup.

His stay at Fenarbache was cut short by injury, which eventually led to a row between him and his Turkish club. At the end Appiah unilaterally terminated his contract with Fenarbache for leaking his medical records to the press.

Stephen Appiah played for Cesena, before to Bologna and finally moved to Vojvodina in the Serbian league in 2012

National team football

He was part of the Black Starlets team that won gold at the U-17 level in the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Ecuador in 1995, before featuring for the Black Satellites in the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Malaysia in 1997.

Stephen Appiah was named as the skipper of the Black Stars in 2002 and in 2004 he was one of the three senior played who were invited into the Black Stars to participate in the Olympic Games in Athens.

Appiah is the longest- serving skipper of the Ghana after independence, having led the Black Stars for a period of 8 years.

FIFA World Cup

In 2005 Stephen Appiah became the first skipper to qualify Ghana to the World Cup. The Black Stars in the 2006 FIFA World Cup staged in Germany qualified from a difficult group that had Italy, the eventual winners of the tournament, Czech Republic and USA, but in the round of 16 they were thrashed 3-0 by Brazil.

Appiah again masterminded Ghana’s qualification to the 2010 FIFA World Cup and made Africa proud by reaching the quarter finals, but for Suarez’s hand ball that denied them a goal they could have been the first Africa country to reach the semifinals of the mundial.

Africa Cup

Stephen Appiah was unfortunate in his career in relation to the Africa Cup of Nations, because he was ruled out of several tournaments due to injury. As a result of that he played in only one AFCON tournament in 2006 and unfortunately Ghana failed to make the knockout stage.

Appearance and goals

Appiah had 67 caps for the Black Stars and scored 14 goals

He retired from international football in 2010, but will officially bring his career to an end on 27 June, 2015 in a farewell match between the Black Stars and Stephen Appiah IX.

Honours and awards

Club

Ghana Hearts of Oak

Ghanaian FA Cup: 1996

OneTouch Premier League: 1997

Italy Parma

Coppa Italia: 2002

Italy Juventus

Supercoppa Italiana: 2003

Turkey Fenerbahçe

Turkcell Super League: 2006–07

Turkish Super Cup: 2007

International

Ghana

FIFA U-17 World Championship: 1995

Individual

2004 Summer Olympic Football All-Star Team

Ghana Footballer of the Year (2005, 2007)

Footballer of the Year in Turkey (2007)

2006 African Cup of Nations All-Star Team of the Tournament

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