Sammy Kuffour claims that Lothar Matthaus was crucial in helping him sign for German side Bayern Munich.
Kuffour left Torino in the summer of 1993 and joined the Bundesliga powerhouse. A year later, the central defender was promoted to the senior team before being loaned out to Nurenburg for the entire season.
The Ghanaian joined the club regularly after his loan period ended between 1996 and 2005 when he went on a free transfer to Italy.
“When I got to Germany, I was training with the first team and he told me, ‘You are good.’ I was feeling cold so he had to go to the chief garage and bring me clothes and took me to shopping for two days,” Kuffour recounted at an event at the German Ambassador’s residence on Tuesday night.
” I was coming from Torino, who won a big money and [Karl-Heinz] Rummenigge didn’t want to pay the money and Lothar said, ‘We know that the guy is good. If you don’t want to pay, I am paying the money from my pocket to sign him so when he develops, you have to pay me ten times [what I paid]. Then Bayern immediately signed me.
“I was very young but he saw the potential in me and playing alongside him was a dream come true because when I was young, watching him play the 1990 World Cup and become the best player of the tournament, World Player of the Year and standing on the same training ground with him was a blessing.”
Kuffour was at Bayern for 13 years and won six Bundesliga titles as well as the Champions League.
