 | ruolo: Difensore
nazionalità: Ghanese
posizione: destra centrale
piede di calcio: destro
nato il: 03/09/76
a: Kumasi
altezza: 175 cm
peso forma: 75 Kg Sempre presente, fino dalle selezioni giovanili, con la nazionale del Ghana di cui è capitano e perno della difesa.
Vero talento calcistico arriva giovanissimo in Italia per vestire la maglia granata del Torino.L'esperienza italiana dura poco nel 1994,infatti, Kuffour è già in Germania al Bayern Monaco.
Gioca nelle giovanili del Bayern sotto la guida del tecnico Hermann Gerland che seguirà per la sua unica esperienza tedesca con una maglia diversa da quella dei bavaresi.Dodici presenze nella seconda divisione tedesca con la maglia del Norimberga. Dal 1996 in pianta stabile al Bayern, con cui vince anche
1996: After the loan spell with 1. FC N¸rnberg in 1996/97, he made his breakthrough in the Bayern first team. He scored the winning goal in the 2001 European/South American Cup as Bayern beat Club AtlÈtico Boca Juniors 1-0 in Tokyo. That followed his pivotal role as Bayern won the 2000/01 UEFA Champions League, by beating Valencia CF. He has been voted Ghana's Footballer of the Year twice (1998 and 1999) and the second best footballer in Africa in 1999 and 2001.
2002/03: In March 2003, he was given a six-game domestic ban after being sent off for dangerous play in the German Cup semi-finals, but was a key member of the Bayern team yet again as they stormed to a domestic double. Showed tremendous mental strength to keep playing through the season despite the death of his 15-month-old daughter in January.
Plays at the heart of the Munich defence. Arguably, one of the toughest markers in the German league.
Did you know?
He is Bayern's second longest-serving player after Mehmet Scholl.
Other
Back in Munich, the Ghana international became a well-known name, attracting interest from Real Madrid, Fiorentina and Barcelona.
As the years have gone by, he has become more consistent, and less inclined to the errors and reckless challenges that marked his early play. His up-and-down style is perhaps best encapsulated by a game against Frankfurt in the 1999-2000 season.
First Kuffour gave away a penalty after fouling a Frankfurt player - 1-0 for Frankfurt - then he ran into his own keeper Oliver Kahn (who was knocked unconscious, and was out of action for a few weeks) and finally he scored the winning goal at the end of the game to make it 2-1 to Bayern.
Bayern rejected a $9 million offer from Barcelona for Kuffour in January 2001 and then fined the player $3,000 in March on learning he had dined with Barca representative Bernd Schuster.
Kuffour signed an extension to his contract in July 2001, pledging his future at the club until 2005.
Most Famous For: Beating the ground and weeping after Manchester United scored the winning goal in the 1999 Champions' League final.
Won: Champions League, four national titles, three German Cups, five League Cups and the Intercontinental Cup. |
