Stephen Appiah: Ghana's best captain ever?
By Sammie Frimpong
Sometime last week, in the build-up to the testimonial on Saturday which formally pulled the curtains on the career of national darling Stephen Appiah, Ghana Football Association president Kwesi Nyantakyi declared the 34-year-old "the best captain" Ghana has had.
It wasn't sentiment, really.
Even if Nyantakyi meant 'best' among all skippers the Stars have ever had -- although I'm inclined to think he was speaking relative to his own tenure as FA chief --he still has a case, such was Appiah's distinction.
Granted, Appiah -- were collection of silverware hoisted the sole and most credible metric of a captain's worth -- could have been counted an unqualified failure.
But it isn't, as Nyantakyi correctly explains.
"My measurement of success is not only based on winning of trophies, but provision of good leadership, leading the team and ensuring stability in it, building good rapport among players and between players and management and also ensuring that there is harmony and mutual respect," the CAF Executive Committee member stated.
Without doubt, Nyantakyi hit the nail on the head with that observation. And he should know, given that Appiah was the first and longest serving Black Stars skipper he got to work with since assuming the nation's top football office almost a decade ago.
While there were lots of egos in the dressing room during Appiah's time as leader of the Stars, there rarely rose an occasion when things ever spilled out of hand. Unlike what the situation was at some point in the nineties when the team was spoilt for talent but steeply divided with no one to really hold it together, Appiah was the glue that ensured that the bunch of Stars he led -- an ambitious, considerably star-studded bunch -- never fell apart.
Remember the embarrassing mutiny at the 2014 FIFA World Cup and other unsettling controversies which have plagued the Stars set-up since Appiah exited the scene ('juju' at 2012 AFCON et al)?
Well, trust me when I say none of those would have occurred under Appiah's watch.
The men who have succeeded him in the Stars' captaincy, John Mensah and Asamoah Gyan, have lacked the gentle yet firm touch that always placed Appiah strongly in charge.
Vocal Mensah is probably the closest we've had to Appiah but Gyan -- like most armband-wearing forwards -- contributes little more than goals; it's not the same as leading the team in 'jama' sessions, you see.
In truth, neither Mensah nor Gyan wields the influence Appiah had on the Black Stars of his era. You'd recall that ahead of the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations Ghana hosted, Appiah, though unable to join the playing body due to injury, was honored with the role of a special adviser with the squad and few Ghanaians had qualms with that decision. And at the World Cup last year, of course, Appiah was again invited to join the Stars' backroom staff. Big as they might be, it's pretty much unthinkable that Mensah and Gyan -- or anyone else for that matter -- would be granted such privileges. They simply don't have the same measure of charisma or command those levels of respect.
That aside, Appiah retains the image of the perfect gentleman, while his successors this far -- Mensah recently suffered a messy divorce with a wife who accused him of quite a few wrongdoings, while Gyan's own sordid sex scandal is still simmering -- have had their individual reputations sullied.
You understand, then, that Nyantakyi wasn't exaggerating with his rather modest assessment of the 'Tornado'. It wasn't just Appiah's masterful displays which set him apart; it was, too, how he swept the whole team along with his own self-generated momentum.
Thus, while some might argue that a handful who ascended to the Stars' captaincy before Appiah might claim superiority over the former Juventus man (and just as many would debate that, for sure), none of his successors -- most of whom would cite him as an inspiration – may ever be spoken of in the same breath.
Ghana's best skipper ever, then?
Maybe. Just maybe.
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