Former Ghana captain Stephen Appiah narrated an emotional story about how Gargo Mohammed, his former teammate in Italy, faked an injury so that he could make his senior debut in Italy.
Appiah expressed gratitude to Gargo for the opportunity during his acceptance speech for winning the Continental Sports Icon Award at the 9th EMY Africa Awards.
The former Juventus man shared a brief background of his life as a young footballer in Europe and how his friend’s gesture helped him taste first-team football with the senior team.
You still don’t understand. Anytime I see you, I bow. I bow because I appreciate what you have done in my life. I quite remember. I was with the junior side. I haven’t signed my contract yet.
We played a friendly game, the senior side against Sturm Graz from Austria. We started the game, 80th minute Gargo Mohammed faked an injury for me to have the chance and I have the feel of the game.
Impressed by his few minutes of cameo which was capped by a goal from outside the box, Udinese offered him a professional contract.
He detailed how he was shocked to see his name in the Italian press the next day and what Gargo told him before he signed his first contract.
I came in 10 minutes to the end of the game; I scored a goal from 25 yards. The next day I saw myself in the newspapers, and I called Gargo Mohammed, I said there’s an article about me. So, I called him and he said okay come to the house. I took a bus, I went to the house and he said, the coach said... ‘Close the door and don’t let him run away.’ After two days, I signed my first international contract.
Appiah and Gargo were teammates at Udinese. The latter started his career at Real Tamale United and played for Stoke City, Venezia, Genoa, Torino, and Qatari side Al-Wakrah SC.
Appiah moved to Udinese in 1997 from Accra Hearts of Oak and went on to play for Juventus, Fenerbache, Parma, Brescia, Bologna, Cesena, and Vojvpodina.