Stephen Appiah

Stephen Appiah
Personal information
Full nameStephen Leroy Appiah
Date of birth24 December 1980
Place of birthAccra, Ghana
Height1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Playing positionMidfielder
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps†(Gls)†
1995–1997Hearts of Oak21(19)
1997–2000Udinese36(0)
2000–2003Parma28(0)
2002–2003→ Brescia (loan)31(7)
2003–2005Juventus48(3)
2005–2008Fenerbahçe64(11)
2009–2010Bologna2(0)
2010–2011Cesena14(0)
2012Vojvodina11(1)
Total255(41)
National team
Ghana U17
Ghana U20
1995–2010Ghana67(14)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).

Stephen Leroy Appiah (/ˈæpɪɑː/ API-ah) (born 24 December 1980) is a Ghanaian retired footballer who played as a midfielder. Appiah was a member of the Ghana national team, which he has represented at the youth, Olympic, and senior levels. He captained Ghana at their World Cup debut in 2006 and was a member of their squad for the 2010 World Cup.

Club career

A strong all-round box-to-box midfielder able to defend as well as create and score goals, Appiah began his career at local club Hearts of Oak in 1995, at 15 years of age. In 1996 he had trials with Galatasaray's youth squad but was not signed and he returned to Hearts of Oak.

In 1997 he moved abroad to join Italian Serie A side Udinese. He spent three seasons with the club and while there changed from striker to midfield. A transfer to Parma in 1999 was jeopardised by viral hepatitis,[1] but Appiah overcame the illness to move there in the summer of 2000. After two seasons at Parma, Appiah went on loan to Brescia for the 2002–03 season. Appiah became a first-team regular for the Lombardians, and scored seven times in 31 games.

Appiah's success at Parma alerted defending Serie a champions Juventus to his talents. Juventus paid Parma €2 million in the summer of 2003 to secure Appiah's services on loan, with an option to a permanent €6 million transfer in 2004. In 2003, Appiah finished 8th for African Footballer of the Year.

He went on to enjoy a good first season for Juventus, playing in 30 Serie A games and appearing in the Coppa Italia final. He also made his debut in the UEFA Champions League. In his second season at Juventus, Appiah played in 18 Serie A games.

Fenerbahçe

In July 2005, he was transferred from Juventus to Turkish giants Fenerbahçe for €8 million.[2] He went on to win the Turkish Super League Championship with the club in their centenary year. In January 2007 he was injured during the international duty with the Black Stars and he delayed the operation on his left knee until end of season.[3]

At the end of the 2006–07 season, Appiah expressed a desire to leave and a German club made an offer of €4 million to Fenerbahçe, after Appiah's agent contacted other clubs without Fenerbahçe's permission.[3] Fenerbahçe rejected the offer.[3]

Injury and contract dispute

After an extended knee-injury layoff, Appiah came off the bench for Fenerbahçe in the Turkish Super League on 6 October 2007. However, the injury recurred after his last game on 1 December, and Appiah went to Italy for rehabilitation on 20 December 2007.[3] The long-term injury forced him to miss the 2008 African Cup of Nations as a player, instead, he became a special adviser of the team.[3] Fenerbahçe also wanted to de-register Appiah as he occupied a foreigner quota, but he refused as he was unclear with the matter.[3] Appiah also refused to take rehabilitation in Turkey.[3] The club also thought that Appiah was actually AWOL and Appiah thought the club exposed his medical history to the press and mistreatment to his injury, although the club defended that it had made an appointment for Appiah to visit Mayo Clinic, United States, but Appiah did not attend.[3] On 1 February 2008, Appiah formally submitted a claim of mistreatment by asking to leave as free agent on 1 July 2008 and received the pre-agreed 2008–09 season salary of €2 million.[3] In response, Fenerbahçe notified FIFA. In April 2008 the case went to FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC), and both parties sued each other.[3] He unilaterally terminated the contract at the end of season, as he thought the club had breached the contract by not fulfilling its duties.[4][5] He also discussed with West Ham United in summer 2008 for a possible contract.[6] DRC ordered Appiah to pay Fenerbahçe €2,281,915 as he breached the contract without just cause on 9 January 2009.[3] He immediately appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in May after received the decision on 5 May 2009 and the club also submitted its appeal. On 7 June 2010 CAS ruled that Appiah did not need to pay Fenerbahçe, as Fenerbahçe saved more in wages (€2,633,020.65) than losses (€2,496,278.85).[3]

Serie A return

Appiah was on trial with the London-based club Tottenham Hotspur in January 2009 with a view to a 6-month permanent contract,[7] however concerns over his knee and fitness resulted in no contract being offered, as Spurs took up the option of signing Wilson Palacios from Wigan instead. The following month Appiah underwent a trial at Rubin Kazan, but the Russian champions decided against signing the player because of the same fitness concerns. Despite being without a club since his departure from Fenerbahçe in June 2008, Appiah remained a regular with the national team throughout the 2008–09 season.

On 1 November 2009, Bologna announced the signing of Appiah on a free transfer.

On 7 August 2010, Appiah signed for newly promoted Italian Serie A side Cesena on a one-year deal with the option of another year if the club stays in the top flight. At the end of the 2010/2011 season his contract expires with Cesena and remains untied.[8]

Post Serie A

On 7 December 2011, the Daily Mail reported that Appiah was on the verge of joining Blackburn Rovers on a one-year deal after a successful trial.

'Appiah impressed and was told by Blackburn boss Steve Kean that he has to work on his fitness level,' his spokesperson told GHANAsoccernet.com

According to reports, Appiah has returned home to Ghana to bury his father, who died last month, before completing the move.[9]

Vojvodina

On 2 February 2012, after passing medical exams, Appiah signed a six-month deal with Serbian side Vojvodina. Along with Almami Moreira and Aleksandar Katai, he was the main winter-break signing of Vojvodina in order to challenge Belgrade clubs dominance and guarantee a European competition place. He made his Serbian SuperLiga debut as a starter in a 16 round match played on 4 March 2012 against Radnički Kragujevac.

Until the end of the 2011–12 Serbian SuperLiga season, he gathered 11 league appearances and has scored his only goal in the deciding last-round home 2–1 victory against Red Star Belgrade,[10] which put Vojvodina on a final third place in the league and guaranteed a spot in next season´s UEFA Europa League.

Other endeavours

Appiah has designed a clothing line named StepApp that was released in late November in his hometown of Accra. All proceeds go to the StepApp foundation.[11] The clothing line will initially be released in Africa before arriving in Europe and the United States in the following months.

Statistics

[12]

Club performance League Cup Continental Total
Season Club League Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Italy League Coppa Italia Europe Total
1997–98UdineseSerie A110110
1998–99210210
1999–00401050
2000–01Parma15061211
2001–0213070200
2002–03Brescia31700317
2003–04Juventus30170371
2004–0518230212
Turkey League Turkish Cup Europe Total
2005–06FenerbahçeSüper Lig32861624411
2006–0726310103376
2007–0860102090
Italy League Coppa Italia Europe Total
2009–10BolognaSerie A20000020
2010–11Cesena1401000150
Serbia League Serbian Cup Europe Total
2011–12VojvodinaSuperLiga1112000131
Country Italy 159101024118411
Turkey 6411811859017
Serbia 1112000131
Total 2342211142628729
Ghana national team
YearAppsGoals
199510
199600
199700
199820
199910
200051
200152
200220
200353
200452
200571
2006162
200731
200831
200971
201050
Total6714

Honours and awards

Club

Ghana Hearts of Oak

Italy Parma

Italy Juventus

Turkey Fenerbahçe

International

Ghana Ghana

Individual

References

  1. ↑ "Appiah restituito all' Udinese". La Gazzetta dello Sport (in Italian). 1 July 1999. Retrieved 29 May 2010.
  2. ↑ "Fenerbahce buoyed by Zico's Brazilian touch". fifa.com (FIFA). 31 August 2006.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 3.11 "CAS 2009/A/1856 – Club X. v/ A. & CAS 2009/A/1857 – A. v/ Club X." (PDF). CAS. 7 June 2010. Retrieved 18 February 2011.
  4. ↑ "Ghana captain Appiah quits Fenerbahce after row". soccernet.espn.go.com (ESPN). 18 August 2008.
  5. ↑ "Player News and Rumors: Fenerbahce betray Stephen Appiah". ghana.worldcupblog.org.
  6. ↑ "Di Michele and Ilunga sign". West Ham United FC. 2 September 2008. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
  7. ↑ "Appiah chases Tottenham contract". BBC Sport (in Italian). 6 January 2009. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
  8. ↑ "Stephen Appiah joins Cesena". Ghana Business News. 7 August 2010. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
  9. ↑ "Rovers turn to former Ghana captain Appiah as midfielder claims deal is close". Read more: Blackburn Rovers sign Stephen Appiah. Daily Mail. 7 December 2011. Retrieved 24 December 2011.
  10. ↑ Stephen Appiah at Soccerway
  11. ↑ StepApp the Official site
  12. ↑ Appiah, Stephen at National-Football-Teams.com

External links