Sammy Kuffour revealed that the senior players in the team took his share of the winning bonus and never handed it to him after his first match for the Black Stars in a game against Tanzania in an AFCON qualifier.
Speaking in an interview with Dan Kweku Yeboah he said, “When I got to camp I was very good at training. Right from there Frimpong Manso, Emmanuel Armah Senegal and Emmanuel Ampiah called me and told me I would play the match because I was in the lineup and I would earn the winning bonus.”
“But they told me not to attempt taking the winning bonus because they will hijack it from me. I didn’t utter a word… because those days the money was paid right after the match,” he added.
According to him, he never thought his teammates were really serious when informed him of their plan to take his winning bonus.
“I thought it was a joke till we finished the match and I went for the money. By the time I got there to take my money, someone has signed my name, it was funny. The three players had signed by my name and taken the $3000,” Sammy Kuffour said.
The former Bayern Munich player had returned from the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona with Ghana’s u-23 side, the Black Meteors when he was handed his first Black Stars call-up.
According to him, his teammates did not only take his money but also took some items he had brought from the Olympics Games in Barcelona.
“Jokingly they didn’t give me my money, in fact, the items I had brought from Barcelona were also taken because I would have been beaten if I complained,” the ex-Ghana international said.
He professed that his first time experience in the Black Stars taught him a great lesson and was grateful for the help he got from some of the players who helped shaped his career.
He said, “it was a good experience for me to have played with these stars. Amah sometimes trained me personally after the team’s training.”
