Tony Yeboah bemoans losing Ghana captaincy to Tony Baffoe in AFCON 1992 final

Anthony Yeboah feels disappointed not to have captained Ghana in the 1992 Africa Cup of Nations finals.

The Black Stars were beaten 11-10 on penalties to Côte d’Ivoire in Dakar, Senegal, to miss out on an elusive  fifth continental title.

Following the suspension of Abedi ‘Pele’ Ayew in the semi-finals against Nigeria through accumulated cards, head coach Otto Pfister was ordered to hand over the captain’s armband to Tony Baffoe.

This decision, according to Yeboah – who was the deputy captain to Abedi – affected the demeanor of the playing body.

In an interview with GTV Sports Plus, the former Leeds United striker said: “To be honest I was very surprised and at the same time the Kumasi Group (My Group) were also shocked so it was affecting us during the game and I was the assistant captain by then, so when they captain was not there I was supposed to take over.”

“So my manager from Germany called Tony Baffoe because I brought Tony Baffour to come and play the National team, I was advising him and in the German League I was on top form and captaining Frankfurt so my manager called Tony Baffoe and told him to tell the Management to give the captain back to Yeboah and Tony Baffoe said No, that was before the game.

“He was not supposed to captain and it was a fact, because Kwesi Appiah was the captain and they took the captain for Abedi so there were a couple of senior players and Tony Baffoe was new in the National team.

“The top people were there, so I think this situation also cost the team because everybody was shocked and the Coach Otto Pfister told us before the game that he had a letter from Ghana that Tony Baffoe has to be the captain, and I don’t know where the letter was from, I don’t know whether it was true or not.

“Everybody was shocked but I motivated the players and told them it was not a problem and that we should go and play but you can see it affected the team. It was in my mind throughout the game, I was trying to score in that game and I even hit the bar but it didn’t work and at the end of the day we lost that particular game,” Yeboah added.

Yeboah scored 29 goals in 59 appearances for Ghana, the third highest goalscoring total in the nation’s history behind Abedi Pele and Asamoah Gyan.

He spent two years on the books of then-Premier League outfit Leeds, from 1995 to 1997, scoring 24 goals in 47 games.

Yeboah was also toast of fans during his heyday in Germany, netting 68 times in 123 matches for the Eagles, having also featured for Saarbrucken and Hamburg.

Ghana have reached the semi-finals of the Afcon in the last five editions but have failed to lift the trophy.