Kuffour Is father Again

...He looks like Zidane on a good day Since the tragic death of Godiva, the daughther of Bayern Munich defender Sammy Kuffour, some eleven months ago, the 27 year old has never stopped grieving.
This gloomy situation made way for joy last Saturday after the birth of his son Samuel junior, some few hours before Bayern Munich’s match against Kaisersluatern last Saturday.
By way of celebration, the likeable player laid on a fine Bavarian Weisswurst breakfast yesterday for his delighted team-mates.
The 27 year-old's world was rocked to its foundations at the turn of the year: the player had only been in Munich for a few hours after returning from the Christmas break when he heard his 15 month old daughter had drowned at home in Ghana. Kuffour flew back to Accra by chartered jet to join his grieving family.
The sense of deep shock extended beyond the likeable player and his closest relations: his team-mates and the club management were all visibly affected by the tragedy. Bayern Munich's second-longest serving player slowly found a way back to normality thanks to a deep-seated belief in God and total dedication to his career as a professional footballer.
"The Bible is my guide, showing me the way to cope with this blow of fate," the player said, with the support and comradeship of his fellow professionals providing the foundation for a gradual recovery.
The club granted Kuffour leave of absence for as long as he wanted, but he was back in training just five days after the accident.
"Despite the unbelievable pain and hurt, it gave him something to aim for. His work proved a great help," Ottmar Hitzfeld commented ahead of Bayern's DFB Cup meeting with Nuremberg.
Kuffour's delight at the arrival of a son, weighing 3460 grams and measuring 54 cm, was enough to get him joking again: "He looks like Zidane on a good day," the 27 year-old told waiting newsmen, although the boy would grow up into a defender like his dad, the player added.
The new arrival means the year ends happily for the centre-back and wife Francisca after starting in the most heartrending circumstances imaginable: little Godiva drowned in the swimming pool of the family villa just outside Ghanaian capital Accra.
Bayern general manager Uli Hoeneß and his secretary Karin Potthoff, known affectionately by the player as his 'German mum' and the one who broke the terrible tidings on that fateful day, did everything they could to help, including chartering the plane to return the stricken defender to his family.
After resuming training, Kuffour threw himself body and soul into his work: "That's the good thing about our job, if you're a true professional, you can't be thinking about anything else," he stated.
The player is highly regarded at the club and looks likely to be a fixture for a long time to come. "We can rely on Sammy, he's a stable and constant factor in the team," Hitzfeld acknowledged. Among many career highlights, no-one will forget the goal scored by the three-times Ghanaian Player of the Year in the November 2001 World Club Cup final in Tokyo to beat Boca Juniors to the title.
Kuffour trained as a cobbler and appeared for King Faisal Club Kumasi and Torino before arriving in Munich aged 17. He spent a season on loan to Nuremberg in 1995-6 before claiming a regular spot in the Bayern back four, and has assembled an impressive collection of winners' medals, including the World Club Cup, Champions League, five Bundesliga titles and three DFB Cups. More will surely follow.