Anthony Baffoe (born 25 May 1965) is a football

business manager The Oxford English Dictionary defines a business manager as "a person who manages the business affairs of an individual, institution, organization, or company". Compare manager. Business managers drive the work of others (if any) in order to oper ...

and former player who is the Deputy General Secretary of the Confederation of African Football. He played as a defender. As the son of a Ghanaian diplomat, Baffoe was born and raised near to the former West German capital of

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

and made a name for himself in the 1980s in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

, becoming a real crowd favourite for 1. FC Köln and

Fortuna Düsseldorf Düsseldorfer Turn- und Sportverein Fortuna 1895 e.V., commonly known as Fortuna Düsseldorf (), is a German football club in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, which competes in the 2. Bundesliga. Founded in 1895, Fortuna entered the league ...

. He represented the Ghana national team at international level.

Club career

Baffoe was born in

Bad Godesberg Bad Godesberg ( ksh, Bad Jodesbersch) is a borough ('' Stadtbezirk'') of Bonn, southern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. From 1949 to 1999, while Bonn was the capital of West Germany, most foreign embassies were in Bad Godesberg. Some buildings ar ...

, Bonn,

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. Much-travelled, he played for clubs on four different

continents A continent is any of several large landmasses. Generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, up to seven geographical regions are commonly regarded as continents. Ordered from largest in area to smallest, these seven ...

. He spent the majority of his career in the

and

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

, starting in 1983 at 1. FC Köln at 18 years of age before moving across the border to join French side

FC Metz Football Club de Metz, commonly referred to as FC Metz or simply Metz (), is a French association football club based in Metz, Lorraine. The club was formed in 1932 and plays in Ligue 2, the second division in the French football league sys ...

nearly ten years later. Baffoe was one of the first recognized black player to appear in the Bundesliga. After 74 German top flight appearances for Köln and

merely he played for a further seven clubs, including spells in Hong Kong and Caracas.

International career

Baffoe was the first Ghanaian expatriate player to play for the Ghana national team. He was capped 25 times for the ''Black Stars'', notably at 1992 and

1994 African Cup of Nations The 1994 African Cup of Nations was the 19th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the association football championship of Africa ( CAF). It was hosted by Tunisia, who replaced original hosts Zaire. Just as in 1992, the field of twelve teams was ...

Retirement

After his playing career Baffoe used his broad popularity to set up and front a new TV magazine show devoted to youth football. He was successful on German television in various sport programmes and is the regular host of Viasat One's Uefa Champions League show in Ghana. After a few years, the former defensive utility man evolved into a well-known representative of the African continent and his home country of Ghana.

Managerial career

Currently Baffoe is the Deputy Secretary General for Football&Development for (CAF),He previously served on FIFA and CAF Football Committees. He was also involved in organizing CAF and FIFA sanctioned tournaments. In February 2006 he was named "Director for International Relations" for the Ghana national team. He is the founder and General Secretary of the Professional Footballers Association of Ghana. In that capacity is in close contact with the FIFPro Players' association and works in collaboration with the Ghana Football Association. Baffoe is a FIFA Ambassador for campaign against racism, a FIFA ambassador for SOS Children's Village and an ambassador for Play Soccer Ghana.

Personal life

Baffoe is married to Kalsoume Sinare, a Ghanaian actress and they both have three children, Shaquille, Boukeem and Keisheira. Baffoe is the brother of German actress Liz Baffoe, who is famous for her role in the German TV series

Lindenstraße ''Lindenstraße'' (literally "Linden Street") was a long-running German television drama series, broadcast by Das Erste. The first episode aired on 8 December 1985 and since then new episodes were broadcast weekly until 2020. Its last timeslot ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Baffoe, Anthony 1965 births Living people Sportspeople from Bonn Businesspeople from Bonn German sportspeople of Ghanaian descent Citizens of Ghana through descent Association football defenders German footballers Ghanaian footballers Ghana international footballers 1992 African Cup of Nations players 1994 African Cup of Nations players 1. FC Köln players 1. FC Köln II players Rot-Weiß Oberhausen players Stuttgarter Kickers players SC Fortuna Köln players Fortuna Düsseldorf players FC Metz players OGC Nice players Sun Hei SC players Caracas FC players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Ligue 1 players German expatriate footballers German expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate footballers in France Expatriate footballers in Hong Kong German expatriate sportspeople in Venezuela Expatriate footballers in Venezuela Footballers from North Rhine-Westphalia