Nii Lamptey

Nii Lamptey

Personal information
Full name	Nii Odartey Lamptey

Olympic medal record
Men's Football
	1992 Barcelona	Team Competition

Nii Odartey Lamptey (born December 16, 1974) is a Ghanaian football player. He is known foremost for his erratic career, in which he became a superstar as a teenager and then suffered a long string of failures which burnt him out well before his time. Lamptey has been used as a byword for a cautionary tale of putting too much pressure on young players to be successful.

Lamptey is married and has fathered four children, however two of them, Diego and Lisa, died soon after birth.

Biography

FIFA U-17 Dominance

A FIFA Youth Tournament legend, ace marksman and playmaker Nii Lamptey first began to attract global attention in 1991 he led Ghana to win the 1991 FIFA U-17 World Championship with the team known as the Black Starlets after playing in the 1989 version as a 15 year old. He won the FIFA Best Player of the tournament - the Golden Ball award although the competition included Argentina's Juan Sebastian Verón and Marcelo Gallardo and Italy's Alessandro del Piero, Lamptey's star shone more brilliantly than them all, as he dominated everyone in the competition. He was subsequently touted as the next Pelé. He scored four goals in that Tournament.

Player of the Tournament

The adidas Golden Ball could only go to one of the members of the victorious Ghanaian side, and so it was, with Nii Odartey Lamptey taking home a very special souvenir from his Italian sojourn. Lamptey was the beating heart of a very good side. His fast feet, speed of thought, and clever interplay with captain Alex Opoku and fellow midfielders Mohammed Gargo and Emmanuel Duah were on display for all to see. His willingness to get into the box was critical too, and his four goals made him joint top-goalscorer . See also 1991 Ghana U-17 Ghana Squad[1]

In recognition of his exquisite football he displayed at the FIFA U-17 Tournament, he was named the 1991 5th Best African Footballer of the Year.

A superstar at 19

Dutch football Coach Aad de Mos signed Lamptey as a 15-year-old and brought him to Belgian giants R.S.C. Anderlecht from Youth team, Young Corners in Accra, Ghana.

He was hailed as the new 'Pele' and age limit rules in Belgium were changed to allow him to debut at the age of 16 for Anderlecht..Lamptey signed his first contract at Anderlecht when he was 16, becoming the youngest-ever player to play in the Belgian league. He quickly established himself as a prolific scorer, dazzling onlookers with his flashy play and obvious talent. After two highly spectacular seasons, he was transferred to PSV Eindhoven, where he made a similar impact and awed fans and experts with his game. At age 19 already, Lamptey had fulfilled the dream of every African teenager, namely becoming a professional soccer player, going into the Promised Land (Europe) and becoming rich and famous.

FIFA U20 World Cup final

Lamptey's brilliance led an enterprising and unpredictable Ghana's U-20 team, known as the "Black Satellites" to win the 1993 African U-20 Cup of Nations and then lost the final of the 1993 FIFA World Youth Championship held in Australia to Brazil, who came from a goal down to win the trophy at the death, 2-1. He also scored in the match against Portugal, which Ghana won 2-0.

FIFA.com said this in a May 2000 article "...in Australia they called for superlatives. The team had been excellently coached by Fred Osam-Duodu, and their skills and flair made each of their matches something spectacular. An almost endless list of talent: Ahinful, Gargo, Addo, Kuffour, Duah, Lamptey, Akonnor..., now among the stars of today with their various big clubs in Europe. How can I forget that comment made in the post match press conference by David Burnside, the English coach, to a crowd of experienced journalists, after his side, England had been knocked out by the amazing Ghanaians: "If one of you can stand up and tell me how to beat this Ghana team and their trainer, I'll be the happiest man in Australia." No-one dared ask him any more questions. It was an admission of impotence and at the same time a tribute to that young African side, going on their way at incredible speed. "Maybe that's the football of tomorrow," laughed one of the older English journalists...". Tournament Information [2]. Ghana squad here

1992 Summer Olympic medal

In the Summer of 1992, young superstar Nii Lamptey led Ghana to win a Bronze medal at the Barcelona 1992 Summer Olympics football tournament.. Ghana, who had the youngest team by far in the competition (18.8 years), were a surprise bronze medallists, becoming the first African nation to earn a medal. They did so in a 1-0 victory over yet another surprise, Australia. 1992 Bronze medal Ghana Squad

Lamptey thus led Ghana to success at any Youth International Tournament in which he played.

International career

At just 16 years, Nii Lamptey scored on his senior debut International for Ghana in a 1992 African Cup of Nations Qualifying home match against Togo in the 43rd minute. Ghana won the match 2-0.

He became a regular International and his superb performances earned him a starting spot in the ‘’Black Stars’’, forming a potent attacking force together with team captain Abedi Pele and Super striker Tony Yeboah. Ghana lost the final of the 1992 African Cup of Nations to Ivory Coast on a marathon penalty shoot-out in Senegal, a game the mercurial Lamptey started at just 17 years. He continued to blossom at senior International level at such a young age, playing any and every Ghana International game since then.

His international career with Ghana dried up after he was sent off in the 1996 African Cup of Nations Semi-final game[3] against South Africa on 31 January 1996. The Black Stars finished fourth, after losing to Zambia in the 3rd Place play-off game without the suspended Lamptey.

Lamptey did not play for Ghana again after they lost 8-2 to Brazil in São José do Rio Preto, Brazil, 27 March 1996 in a Pre-1996 Summer Olympics friendly match. Many observers believe that the numerous back and forth travels to Africa for International matches, stalled his young career at Club level. His career later went into a slump.

First signs of trouble

Ron Atkinson bought Lamptey to Aston Villa in the summer of 1994. This move came as a surprise, as PSV was a more successful club than Aston Villa at the time, Lamptey, being one of the star players of PSV.

However, on German TV (see below), Lamptey recalled that when he came to Europe, he signed an exclusive marketing contract with an Italian player agent. Naive as he was, he thought that the agent only acted in his best interest. In fact, the player agent was "a shady character who held Lamptey's transfer rights like a slave owner held his slave" (quote by a fellow German player agent, and an opinion also supported by Lamptey's trainer Otto Pfister). He thought only of where to sell Lamptey for the best price, to bag ~25% of the transfer sum for himself, and so he sold him to Aston Villa. Too late Lamptey realized that the exclusive contract was a trap he could not flee.

He failed to impress at Villa Park, however, and following Atkinson's dismissal as Villa boss, he re-signed Lamptey for his new club Coventry City. His time at Coventry further proved that Lamptey was not cut out for Premiership football, and another engagement in Venice was also a flop. Lamptey went on to join a string of lower status clubs. This began a vicious circle that the honest but naive Lamptey could not break.

Decline, odyssey and personal tragedy

Lamptey joined Venezia in Italy and later Unión de Santa Fe in Argentina. There, he and his wife had their third child, Diego. But soon, Diego died of a rare disease. A major emotional blow was also the fact that Lamptey wanted to bury his son in Ghana, but the authorities declined. Heartbroken, Lamptey temporarily stopped with soccer.

After unsuccessful stints at Ankaragücü and União Leiria, Lamptey got himself a new German player agent who transferred him to SpVgg Greuther Fürth. However, Lamptey and his wife were unhappy there, unable to live through the culture shock in Germany. Lamptey was not entirely unsuccessful, being a reliable backup, but was found too fragile for the rough Second Bundesliga. He was also reportedly ignored by his German colleagues, and once, a colleague flat out refused to sleep in the same hotel room as him. This blatant racism shocked Lamptey, but even worse was the fact that his child Lisa also died soon after birth. Also Lamptey's second dead child was buried abroad, in Germany. The Lampteys soon left for Asia.

Rebounding and coming home

Lamptey then joined Shandong Luneng Tai Shan in China. He described his time there as the happiest time of his life, finally being accepted and loved by fans and experts again. He then moved to Al-Nasr and then back to Ghana to Kumasi Asante Kotoko, becoming the first Ghanaian star to return to his roots again as a player.

Lamptey has said that despite everything, he does not feel like a loser, but rather as a hardened survivor who refuses to be destroyed. He has also founded a school, which bears his name and is his whole pride. As a father who has lost two kids, he wants to make other children happy and give back to society.

On 5 March 2007 Lamptey signed for South African side Jomo Cosmos [4].

References

• Der afrikanische Pelé (the African Pelé), documentary by the German TV station WDR, on April 14, 2006

External links

• Nii Lamptey statistics
• The next Pele or next Nii Lamptey
• Nii Lamptey returns home