Senegal 92 captaincy saga: We needed a psychologist- Nii Lante Vanderpuiye

Former Youth and Sports Minister Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuiye in reminiscing Ghana’s AFCON 1992 Final defeat to Ivory Coast has suggested that in-camp happenings and its eventual impact on the team have given the clearest indication that perhaps the Black Stars needed a psychologist.

Nii Lante has also gone on to suggest that ex-Black Stars defender Anthony Baffoe who was named the surprised captain prior to the final was also a victim of circumstances.

Baffoe was handed the captain’s armband prior to the final; much to the dismay of Anthony Yeboah and his camp, with Yeboah having recently stated that the decision affected his output on the pitch during the game.

With Abedi Pele suspended for the final clash with the Ivorians, it was widely expected that Yeboah will get the captain’s armband.

However he was snubbed and the captaincy went to the then room-mate of Pele, Anthony Baffoe.

Nii Lante believes Baffoe was just unlucky to be in the midst of all this politics and suggests that the leadership should have envisaged this and worked on how to deal with it.

“Tony Baffoe is an unfortunate victim or lets me say a mistake pawn on this chessboard,” he noted.

“Because he had just joined the team fresh, he had come from Europe with different sort of mentality, ideas, and psychology. His influence on the team became very positive.

“So we had Abedi Pele, we had Tony Yeboah, we had Kwasi Appiah and we had tony Baffoe. All these players were there, pools of influence

“So if you don’t have managers that could put the pawns and all these kings together, each of them will be pulling the troops to his side, one way or the other and that’s what we didn’t do.

“Possibly we needed a psychologist, we needed someone who could see that and try and weave all these influences, egos, auras together into a very strong fabric; we didn’t do,” he concluded.