Ghana Legend Tony Yeboah Has Revealed The Real Reason For AFCON 1992 Final Defeat to Ivory Coast
Former Ghana international Anthony Yeboah has revealed the team was divided at the 1992 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), resulting in a final defeat to Cote d’Ivoire.
Four-time champions, the Black Stars hopes of adding a fifth gold to their cabinet in Senegal ended in disappointment following a penalty shootout defeat to Cote d’Ivoire.
The match ended 0-0 after extra-time time before The Elephants emerged supreme in a marathon shoot-out which ended 11-10. Ghana played the game without influential captain Abedi Ayew ‘Pele’ who was serving a suspension.
Ahead of the game, the players expected then Frankfurt captain Yeboah to lead the Black Stars by wearing the armband, but the team were shocked to find out defender Baffoe was to instead be the skipper for the match.
According to Yeboah, the decision to hand Baffoe the captaincy for the final affected the team.
“When the captain is not there? Who is the next?” he quizzed during an interview with GTV Sports Plus. “So my manager from Germany, he called Tony Baffoe because I brought Tony from Germany to come and play the national team.”
“I was advising him and I remember we came to Ghana, and they were calling us the two Tonys. So my manager called Tony, at that time I was in top form in Germany and I was captain in Frankfurt. He called him and told Tony to tell the management to give the captain to me, but Tony Baffoe said no… This was before the game.” Yeboah explained that at the time, Kwesi Appiah was captain and the players decided to hand the armband to Abedi Pele, so that a senior would lead the team. He added that Baffoe did not deserve to be captain as he was new to the Ghana national team.
“So even when it is not me, there were players like Opoku Nti, so for me I thought that cost us the AFCON in 1992. Everybody was shocked. The coach, Otto Pfister said he had a letter from Ghana to give Tony Baffoe [captaincy]. Everybody was shocked. It affected the team.” Ghana lost to Ivory Coast on penalties and have not won the Africa Cup of Nations since.
Yeboah calls former manager racist
Earlier, Sports Brief reported that Tony Yeboah as revealed he was forced to leave Eintracht Frankfurt in 1995, following the arrival of German trainer Jupp Heynckes.
The Ghana legend did not see eye to eye with the man, who he describes as a racist for his alleged mistreatment of foreign players. In an interview with the BBC, Yeboah disclosed Frankfurt had to choose between him, who was the captain of the club, and the manager.
Source: SportsBrief.com
