A former Deputy Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) Tony Baffoe has admonished footballers to spend time learning courses online to prepare themselves for life after football at the 2024 Afro Sports Summit in Accra.
Sports and Ghana sports are riddled with stories of young footballers who were once duped by unscrupulous clubs and agents due to the latter footballers’ lack of education.
A case in point is former national under-17 Star Nii Odartey Lamptey who confessed to being duped by his agent while playing professional football in Europe but only realised the phenomenon when his agent was late to his contract signing ceremony at Aston Villa.
Liquid Sports Ghana has led school mentorship conferences to address perceptions among school-going children that sportsmen/women cannot combine their talent and academics to achieve their aims in life.
In more recent times, the youth tend to spend more time on social media which has its plus and minuses.
Speaking at the 2024 Afro Sport Summit in Accra, Tony Baffoe emphasised the role of education in the life of a footballer.
“Young players today are very lucky,” Baffoe said at the summit as quoted by Ghanasoccernet.com.
“Covid has taught us that you can be in one place and still work and study online. You can spend one hour on Instagram, so why not spend one hour learning a course online? Don’t wait until your career is ending.”
Baffoe grew up in Germany and is a leading advocate for players’ welfare. He founded the Professional Footballers Association of Ghana (PFAG) and continues to be a shining light for footballers following his meteoric rise to the position of Deputy Secretary General of the CAF previously.
