Stephen Appiah appointed as Anti-Doping Agency Board member

By: Bernard Nyankomago Kwasi

Ex skipper of the Black Stars, Stephen Appiah has been assigned a fresh role to play as a member of the newly formed Ghana Anti-Doping Agency Board.

The core duty of this Agency is to put in place pragmatic measures that will help fight and eradicate doping among sports personnels in the country to ensure sanity and professionalism.

Stephen Appiah has undoubtedly paid a huge dues to Ghana Football. At tender, he was invited to the national U-17 team, the Black Starlets by coach Sam Arday in the early 90s.

He was part of the invincible Black Starlets team that conquered the world during the Ecuador 1995 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

Though there were exceptional players like Awudu Issaka, Baba Sule, Atakora Amaniampong and co who featured prominently in that victorious squad, unregular Stephen Appiah rose to become a big name in the world football.

In the annals of Ghana Football, “Tornado” as he is popularly known remains the first player to captain the Black Stars for their maiden World Cup appearance in Germany 2006.

Though debutants, he led the Black Stars to the 1/16 stage of the tournament and improved on their record four years later at the South Africa 2010 FIFA World Cup where they got to the quarter finals.

He has played for many bigs clubs across Europe including Italian giants Juventus and Turkish champions Fernabache.

Currently, he is a vibrant member of the Black Stars management committee. Together with his able committee, they have inspired the Black Stars to their fifth FIFA World Cup scheduled for June-July in USA, Canada and Mexico.