AFCON 2019: I Want To Annex AFCON As Black Stars Technical Team Member, Says Stephen Appiah

STEPHEN APPIAH

Former skipper of the Black Stars, Stephen Appiah has insisted that he is eager to win the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations as a technical team member of the national team after he failed to win Africa's finest tournament as a player.

The former Fenerbache midfield dynamo played for the country between 1995 and 2011, making 67 appearances for the national team.

The 36-year-old also captained the Black Stars at the AFCON in 2006, but injuries prevented him from playing in the 2008, 2010 and 2012 editions.

Now a technical member of the team, the former Hearts of Oak star insists he wants to make amends for failing to win the coveted trophy.

Appiah says although he couldn’t win the AFCON as a player, he is determined to help the current players win it from his role on the bench.

“I think that the system is the same. We don’t have to do anything different and we are trying to figure out why it is difficult for us to win the trophy, so that is our main focus now,” he told Pulse Ghana in an exclusive interview.

“I think that the players are there. Some of us, we are going to be hard on them, because I always say that some of us in our time, never had the chance to win the trophy.

“Me being a member of the technical team, I have the chance to win the trophy through the players who are going to play, so we are all praying,"

The Black Stars are on a mission to end a 37-year trophy drought, having last won the AFCON in 1982.

Ghana has been paired in Group F, which also contains defending champions Cameroon, Guinea-Bissau and Benin.

The Black Stars will kick-off their AFCON campaign on Tuesday evening, with a fixture against the Squirrels.