GhanaWeb Feature
Read full article For most footballers at the twilight of their careers, the prospect of retirement is one that brings uncomfortable and negative thoughts.
Aside from the thought of missing the game they so much love, the anticipation of no longer enjoying the thousands of dollars they used to rake in weekly and monthly makes it hard to take.
Irrespective of these musings, the body will at some point give up and no longer be able to endure consistent 90 minutes of gruelling action. A player is therefore left with no other option but to hang his boots.
The transition from the field to retirement is one that proves a tricky task. Whereas some footballers have made a successful transition into retirement and continue to enjoy some relative amount of luxury, others have had the tag ‘from riches to rags’ bestowed on them due to their inability to land into the world of retirement successfully.
In Ghana, there abound stories of ex-footballers or sportsmen whose fortunes have vanished and are now in a state of penury and anguish.
There, however, exist some great and inspirational stories of how some retired sportsmen and women navigated the crossroad of active career and retirement brilliantly and are now enjoying remarkable success.
Former Ghana defender Samuel Osei Kuffour falls in this category. The affluence and success in his playing career that traversed from King Faisal to Bayern Munich still surrounds him.
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It’s no coincidence that more than a decade after he called it quits on football, he is a member of arguably the biggest collection of Ghana’s richest men – The East Legon Executive Club.
But how did he do it? From an interview he granted Joy FM two years ago, GhanaWeb highlights the key areas.
Never forget where you came from
When Osei Kuffour talks about his life, the glee with which he speaks about his mom speaks volumes about the role she played in his life.
Sammy Kuffour, who prefers not to talk about his father, said he grew up with his mom in an uncompleted building and had to feed on ‘angwa mo’ for years.
The determination to make his mom and the people who helped him proud is what drove him to save and invest what he got from football.
“The one who inspired me most was my mother. I saw her struggling, falling and getting up, raising three kids, living in an uncompleted house and we ate angwa mo for one year. When the success comes, I cannot bury that success alone.”
You are what you read
The above quote is one of the reasons Kuffour is living in luxury. At the summit of his career when everything was going well, Kuffour still had time to read books. He read books that exhorted his mind to opportunities and made him reason.
“I love to read and I love to challenge myself. You being a football star, you get to an interview with people and you don’t want to embarrass yourself,” he said.
“In Germany, I was lucky to have good people around me so I needed to educate myself and enlighten myself. I bought a book authored by Joel Osteen and Archbishop Duncan Williams.
I was reading a lot. They taught me many things about life. Life is not about speaking English alone, it’s about how you treat people outside. Through reading, I got to enlighten myself.”
Have good people around you
Sammy Kuffour does not hesitate to mention Tony Yeboah, Osei Kwame Despite, and a host of other people who constantly urged him to invest his money.
He speaks highly of Tony Yeboah as someone who impressed on him to explore investment opportunities.
He also mentions Despite as one of the people in his life who opened his eyes to business opportunities. Late President Rawlings and PV Obeng are also some of the people Kuffour credits for his fortune.
“I will advise that you take older people as your friends. I have a lot of conversations with the players who are playing now”.
“I am talking for myself because I experienced it and it worked for me. You can have loads of friends when you are playing but the question is, are they putting any business proposals on the table? It can be envy and jealousy.
“For him (Tony Yeboah) to tell me to make that move shows that he didn’t care about the existing circumstance but my future.
“He would call me and say ‘Sam I know you played this game and made some good money and let’s purchase this property’. By the time I realized, I had acquired quite a number of properties,” he said.
“Dr Osei Kwame Despite, CEO of the Despite Group also checked on me and asked about how well I was saving money,” he added.
God
Sammy Kuffour has not lost sight of the role of God in his success. Throughout the interaction, he referenced God and expressed gratitude to him.
He also showed gratitude to the persons who in one way or the other helped him reach his current status.
Author: Perez Erzoah-Kwaw