Kuffour: I was treated like a king after Bayern's Club World Cup triumph

Sammy Kuffour was desperate to win the world clubs' title in 2001 and not just for himself, his team-mates and the Bayern Munich club he loved so much. He also wanted to "do something special" for his infant daughter, his wife and his mother, for the people of Ghana and, to top it all, for the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

He did not let them down. After 90 goalless minutes between Bayern and the Toyota Cup holders, Boca Juniors, Kuffour was called over to the sidelines for a chat with Ottmar Hitzfeld, the Bayern boss.

"Go further forward," Hitzfeld told his big central defender. "You can carry the ball through them. If you go up there, Owen Hargreaves will cover for you."

It worked. From a corner in the 109th minute Thorsten Fink headed the ball down and after a scramble it bounced in front of Kuffour. "I was there to bang it home," he said.

He ripped off his shirt and ran to the touchline with glee. "It was a moment I can never forget. When I scored I was thinking of my daughter, Godiva," Kuffour told Goal.

"She was only one month old then. I had phoned home earlier and she was crying. I told my family I wanted to do something special for her and for them."

Tragically, Godiva died when she was 15 months old. She drowned in an accident and Kuffour was flown home by Bayern to grieve with his family in Ghana. "May she rest in peace," he said.

The UN Secretary-General at the time was Kofi Annan, not just a fellow Ghanaian but also from Kumasi, the same city as Kuffour. "He came to the game to watch me, and he told me before kick-off 'I am here for you'. We spoke again afterwards and I was very proud of that," Kuffour recalled. "It was amazing for me to meet him.

"When I got back to Bavaria I was treated like a king. Bayern had not won the Club World Cup for 25 years and everybody wanted to shake my hand."

Kuffour, one of Africa's all-time great defenders, spent 12 years at Bayern and won 17 trophies with them. His low point was losing the 1999 Champions League final against Manchester United, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's late winner leaving him in tears. Two years later, though, he was at centre-back as Bayern were crowned champions of Europe, beating Valencia in Milan, before victory in Tokyo.

He returned to Munich recently for a legends night, at which he was given a standing ovation. "I cried," he said. "What a great club."

Kuffour was named man of the match against Boca and won a car. "It was a Lexus, and I still have it now," said the first player from sub-Saharan Africa to be named star man in the Toyota Cup.

"When I rang a friend in Ghana he said, 'You don't know what you have done. We are so proud of you.' Everybody was talking about me. I was proud to be Ghanaian, I had shown people that in football, you can be anybody from anywhere and make a difference."

Boca had played much of the match with 10 men. Their striker Marcelo Delgado was sent off for diving in the 45th minute by Kim Milton Nielsen, the Danish referee who famously showed David Beckham a red card at the 1998 World Cup.

Earlier, Delgado should have scored after a rare error by Kuffour, but Oliver Kahn saved well. "I thanked him for that," the defender recalled.

"Boca were a good team but they were very rough, they tried to intimidate us. But we were ahead of them in terms of quality. Their best player was Juan Riquelme, who passed the ball so well, and put us in some difficult situations.

"Before the game we were a little bit scared of him, but Owen Hargreaves was on him and he did well."

The victory meant Kuffour, now 38 and a TV analyst, could call himself a double world champion. "I won the Under-17 World Cup with Ghana, and now I was playing for the champion club of the world."