Posted by 28 years on since Ghana lost the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) final to neighbors Ivory Coast on penalties. Many football fans believe that Ghana lost the final due to the disunity in the team, one which was triggered by a captaincy dilemma.
Ghana went into the final without first choice captain Abedi Pele who was suspended for the game due to accumulation of yellow cards.
Anthony Yeboah who was the vice captain was expected to lead the team in the final, but surprisingly Anthony Baffoe was tasked to do that.
Speaking in an interview with GTV Sports plus, the former Leeds striker expressed his disappointment about how events unfolded on the day.
“To be honest I was very surprised and at the same time the Kumasi Group (My Group) were also shocked so it was affecting us during the game and I was the assistant captain by then, so when they captain was not there I was supposed to take over,” Anthony Yeboah said on GTV Sports plus.
“So my manager from Germany called Tony Baffoe because I brought Tony Baffoe to come and play the National team, I was advising him and in the German League I was on top form and captaining Frankfurt so my manager called Tony Baffoe and told him to tell the Management to give the captain back to Yeboah and Tony Baffoe said No, that was before the game.
“He was not supposed to captain and it was a fact, because Kwesi Appiah was the captain and they took the captain for Abedi, there were a couple of senior players and Tony Baffoe was new in the National team. The top people were there, so I think this situation also cost the team because everybody was shocked and the Coach Otto Pfister told us before the game that he had a letter from Ghana that Tony Baffoe has to be the captain, and I don’t know where the letter was from, I don’t know whether it was true or not.
“Everybody was shocked but I motivated the players and told them it was not a problem and that we should go and play but you can see it affected the team. It was in my mind throughout the game, I was trying to score in that game and I even hit the bar but it didn’t work and at the end of the day we lost that particular game.” He added.
The final after 90 minutes and extra time ended scoreless. Ghana lost the penalty shootouts 11-10, with Anthony Baffoe missing his kick.