Modern Black Stars players will feel vindicated after it emerged their predecessors pocketed US$ 8,000 as winning bonus for beating rivals Nigeria in the semi-final of the 1992 Africa Cup of Nations.
In recent times, senior national team players have been criticized as being greedy for negotiating bonuses for major tournaments and the happenings at the 2014 FIFA World Cup finals in Brazil gave credence to this.
The notion has been that the current generation is obsessed with money and not having the desire to end the country’s trophy drought.
But speaking on state-owned GTV Sports + on Sunday, ex-captain Abedi Ayew Pele recounted how a juicy financial package gingered them to oust their perennial rivals, the Super Eagles.
”We were getting close but not US$ 10,000. I think we were promised US$ 5,000 and I said give us US$ 8,000 we can win the game. And the US$ 8,000 was given and the rest was history,” the three-time African Footballer of the Year narrated.
Pele rallied his teammates his to secure a come-from-behind 2-1 win at the Stade de l’Amitié, Dakar.
The talismanic skipper levelled in the in the 43rd minute after Mutiu Adepoju had opened the scoring on 11 minutes.
Prince Polley snatched the winner in the 54th minute but Pele missed the final because of yellow card accumulation.
Source: Ghana Soccernet
