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Ghana holds memorial match for former Juventus star Appiah's retirement

Xinhua, June 28, 2015 Adjust font size:

Thousands of Ghanaian soccer fans including president John Dramani Mahama filled the Accra Sports Stadium on Saturday to witness a memorial match in honor of former Black Stars skipper Stephen Appiah.

Appiah joined other international stars to play in the one-off game to officially announce his retirement from active football after more than two decades of illustrious professional career.

The match between a select national side and Appiah XI made up of galaxy of stars such as Samuel Eto'o of Cameroon, ex-Dutch international George Boateng, Togolese forward Emmanuel Adebayor, former Italian star Guiseppe Coluci and a host of others.

Appiah, known as 'Tornado', captained Ghana to its first-ever World Cup appearance in Germany in 2006 and was the leader of the Black Stars squad that came close to hitting a semifinal berth at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

From the sandy pitches at Indadfa park in Accra where his career was honed to the grassy green field in Turin, Italy, where his career blossomed, Appiah's story tells a great true story of a Ghanaian patriot who with nothing, from nothing, rose to become a global icon, thanks to the power of football.

The former Juventus star said he was honored to represent Ghana both on and off the pitch.

Appiah who was capped 67 times for the Black Stars of which he managed to score 14 goals has been an aspiration to the entire Ghanaian youth and beyond. Endi