Cult Player Profile: Nii Lamptey

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...

Cult Player Profile: Paolo Montero

Now this guy was one hard b*****d. He went to Italy, the land that spawned the likes of Claudio Gentile, Rino Gattuso and Marco Materazzi and broke the Serie A record for red cards received by one player. He has received an amazing 15 red cards during his 13 year spell in Italy.

Montero’s trademark was the ‘clothes line’ tackle, in which his stiff arm would connect with the attacker’s Adam’s apple leaving them in a heap on the ground
Just to put this in perspective Roy Keane had less red cards in his whole career...

 
Now  we've got the violence and brutality out of the way, time to talk football. Montero's best years were spent at Juventus, during this time Juve were dominating the domestic scene in Italy and reached three Champions League finals. Montero was an integral part of this dominance playing mainly as a centre back and occasionally a left full back.

When looking at the defenders career Goal.com put him in their Juventus team of the decade (2000-2010) saying "Despite his poor disciplinary record, the Uruguayan was also a world class defender during most of his Juventus career. Montero was man-made for the Italian game due to his excellent reading of the game, and professionalism." He was tough rugged and determined to win, when questioned if he is a bad player or if referees have targeted him by the Italian press he responded "They did so, but do not tell me I'm bad, this only my parents can say. The fact is that I always play to win, in the locker room shaking hands with opponents, of course, but no concession in the field. " He was the kind of player you would want on your team when backs are to the wall.

Montero battling with Arsenal's Frederik Ljungberg in the Champions League

During his nine years with Juventus he won 5 Serie A titles and played in 3 Champions Leagues finals, unfortunately he was on the losing side in all 3. He also won numerous minor trophies including 3 Italian Super Cups, 1 Uefa Super Cup and a Intercontinental Cup.

Montero tackling Brazilian star Juninho in a World Cup Qualifier

He was also capped 61 times by Uruguay scoring 5 goals in his 14 year international career and also captained his country. He only played in one major international tournament which was Korea and Japan 2002 where his side were knocked out in the group stages. He retired after Uruguay failed to qualify for the 2006 tournament after a playoff defeat to Australia.

Anyway Montero will always be underrated as a defender but be in everyone's "Top Ten Hard Men of Football". I feel there are two reasons to why he is so underrated, firstly due to his very poor disciplinary record and secondly because he played for a "lesser" nation in terms of status in international football. I personally think if he played for Brazil or Italy he would've been remembered as one of the best defenders of the last two decades...