Few players seem to have the luck of never experiencing some negative aspects, and former Ghanaian international Emmanuel Osei Kuffour seems to be one of the lucky few.
In an exclusive interview aired on Revolt Radio in Columbus, Ohio, USA, Kuffour has revealed that throughout his 25-year-old football career, he never got injured as a player. Surprised? Yes, it happens, and the General, as he was fondly called,says it can only be through the workings of God or luck that he was never injured in his playing days.
“I never got injured before as a player. I have never been injured, and in the 25 years of my active football ,injury was never part of my life. “
” I don’t know what injury looks like as it did not happen to my career. Knee injury, ankle injury, and all that are strangers to me as I never experienced it. I’d rather see or hear of colleagues getting injured, but for me, never. Maybe I was lucky, or God did something wonderful for me, “Kuffour told Cee, the host of the program “M’asem” on Revolt Radio.
The revelation explains why Kuffour was very consistent in his career, playing 7 years of football with Dwarfs ,then to Hearts of Oak where he won the Champions League Confederation Cup, then to Ashgold before finally joining his favourite club Asante Kotoko,leading them to win trophies too. Kuffour also played for the national teams, including captaining the Black Stars at a point ,and also was part of Ghana’s Olympic Games football team in Atlanta 96.
He was always in the lineup of all the clubs he played for unless he was suspended through card accumulation or decisions of coaches to rest him.
Kuffour, who is currently based in the United States, also disclosed that he is not a believer in juju in football but rather believes in training and consistency. He revealed an incident that hurt him most in his career, saying
“I scored the last goal when Hearts defeated Kotoko 4-0, but Hearts supporters insulted me, claiming I never wanted to score the goal because I am a Kotoko supporter. That is a lie because I wanted to dribble the players first before scoring,and yes, I got the players down first before scoring that goal, “he said.