I don't know if many of you know the name Nii Lamptey. To me he was just an average footballer who I remember from a 1994-1995 Premier League Sticker book I once had until I decided to research this seemingly forgettable footballer.
Born in Tema, Ghana to two abusive parents he spent his days and nights avoiding being at home by playing football. By the age of eight he was homeless and sought refuge at a Muslim football camp which he joined after converting to Islam. Slowly Lamptey began to show signs of his footballing talent and received call ups for the junior sides.
He first received global attention at the Fifa 1991 U17 World Cup playing for Ghana he won the tournament and the Golden Ball as the tournaments best player. Following this tournament Pele was quoted as saying,
"Lamptey is my natural successor"
Those were big words to relate to a 15 year old. Further to his success he was declared Africa's fifth best footballer of that year.
Following his success at the U17 World Cup he signed for Belgian club Anderlecht. This wasn't easy for him to do as the Ghanaian authorities had confiscated his passport to ensure he doesn't leave the country. He managed to leave by fleeing to Nigeria and then going to Belgium from there.
For Anderlecht he played 30 league games in three years, scoring 9 goals which is not bad for any player playing his first seasons in Europe but for a 16 year old it is amazing. His performances caught the attention of Dutch giants PSV Eindhoven who signed him aged 19. In Holland he went on to improve his performances and scored 10 goals in 22 appearances. He only spent one season in Holland after his agent engineered a moved to English side Aston Villa.
This is where his career began to show signs of declining. The move to Villa wasn't one with Lamptey's football career at heart. His agent allowed the highest bidder to sign him regardless of the status of the club or the implications it may have had on Lamptey's career. It has been publicised that Lamptey's Italian agent took 25% of the fee paid for him. The agent in question was described by another player agent as,
"a shady character who held Lamptey transfer rights like a slave owner held his slave"
The only good thing that came of this transfer was his relationship with Ron Atkinson the Villa manager at the time, Lamptey still speaks highly of him. Atkinson ensured that Lampteys agent didn't get hold of his signing on fee,
"Ron gave my account number to the office and they paid it in direct. I hadn't even been told I was due a fee. The manager [agent] was very upset. Big Ron has been a good man in my life."
Lamptey didn't perform to expectations at Villa Park and when Atkinson was sacked and joined Coventry City, Lamptey followed him. Unfortunately again he failed to impress. Overall in his time in England he scored 6 goals all in the League Cup, 3 for Coventry and 3 for Villa.
Following his spell in England he played for Venice in Italy, Unión de Santa Fe in Argentina, Ankaragücü in Turkey, União Leiria in Portugal, SpVgg Greuther Fürth in Germany, Shandong Luneng Tai Shan in China, Al-Nasr in Saudi Arabia, Kumasi Asante Kotoko in Ghana, before finally settling in South Africa at Jomo Cosmos.
He played for thirteen clubs in only 16 years this clearly shows how turbulent his career was. When you consider that at the age of 19, he was a World Champion and Golden Ball winner at the 1991 U17 World Cup in Italy, Olympic Bronze medallist in 1992, and a runner-up in the 1993 U20 World Cup, whilst being linked with the likes of Real Madrid. It seems like a tragic waste of potential.
When asked about the nature of his career in a rare interview with the Guardian, Lamptey responded by saying.
"Do I have regrets? I don't know. Perhaps you have to explain more from the dictionary what is regret. I won't say regret. I know if it was me alone and people had left me, for sure I should have been playing for Madrid now. But people want your downfall, too many things.
'But even through those things I'm able to stand firm. Whatever a footballer is supposed to achieve, I've done it, I've seen it. Maybe as Pelé put it that I'm going to step in his shoes, that one did not happen. That's a bit painful now, but I have to take it like that."
Nii Lamptey is now 36 six years old, at this age he should not be looking at his career in top level football as a distant memory but unfortunate circumstances have meant he is. But in his retirement he has set up a school in Ghana which is linked with a local football academy to help children in Ghana have the assistance he never had.
Africa has stars like Emanuel Adebayor, Michael Essien, Samuel Eto'o and Nwankwo Kanu but Nii Lamptey was the greatest talent Africa and world football lost...
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