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Ghanaian
footballer Sammy Kuffour tells BBC he wants to be a priest
Ghanaian
international soccer star Sammy Kuffour has revealed to the BBC
that he wants to be a priest or a missionary when he finally hangs
up his boots.
"I
believe that one day I will be a priest," he tells the BBC's
Religious Affairs reporter Jane Little. "I'll stand in front
of thousands of people and share the word of God with them."
In
a moving interview for the BBC World Service programme Heart
and Soul to be broadcast on 23 April, Kuffour also opens
his heart about the death in January of his 15 month old daughter,
Godiva, who drowned in January after falling into a swimming pool
at the star's home in Accra.
"Maybe
Godiva was an angel," he said. "She came to clear things
in my life. She came to do what she had to do and now she is with
God."
The
27-year-old defender also reveals how his family were so poor that
when he was selected to play for the Ghanaian under 17 side, his
mother sold the family TV to pay for his soccer boots. He later
bought the television back again with the bonus he picked up from
the game.
Kuffour
has two years left of his contract with German team, Bayern Munich,
with whom he won the Champions League in 2001.
He
has pledged that the tragic death of his daughter will not affect
his performance on the field and said his Christian faith gave him
the courage to face the future.
In
the interview he tells the BBC how German players would watch in
bewilderment as he prayed before games and how he finds support
among fellow Ghanaian Christians living in Munich.
Notes
to Editors
BBC
World Service broadcasts programmes around the world in 43 languages
and is available on radio and online at www.bbcworldservice.com.
It
has a global audience of 150 million listeners.
Heart
and Soul: Celebrity I Believe will be aired on the BBC
World Service at 9.45am GMT (repeated 2.45pm GMT) on Wednesday
23 April 2003.
All the
BBC's digital services are now available on Freeview,
the new free-to-view digital terrestrial television service, as well
as on satellite and cable.
Freeview
offers the BBC's eight television channels, interactive services
from BBCi, as well as 11 BBC radio networks.
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