Tony Baffoe shares how Toni Schumacher elevated him in professional football

Deputy General Secretary of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Anthony Baffoe, has shared how he was motivated by former German goalkeeper Toni Schumacher during the early days of his career.
Interviewed on the Y-Leaderboard Series which airs on Y107.9FM, Tony told Rev. Erskine about his days of playing football at the youth level and about the fact that at age seventeen, he was called up to train with the professionals once or twice a week.
Being selected to train with these professionals specifically experienced players who were coming out of injury, according to him, was already a strong signal that the selectees had talent, however, he mentioned that at that time, he did not play with enough seriousness because he never had it in mind to play football professionally.
“For us the young ones, we were on the spot but for me, I didn’t even have that in mind. I was seventeen and I was in my last year of playing in the youth and I was just playing until my youth coach told me to focus because Reynolds Mitchells, may his soul Rest In Peace, had his eyes on me.
It made click because back then, only three foreigners could play on a professional team so I was asking lots of questions and my youth coach told me to try and finish the season and then we see what will happen afterwards”, he recalled.
Tony, with time, got to camp with the professionals and signed his first two-year contract. After playing two matches, Reynolds had to leave and was replaced with a new coach whom Tony did not exactly have a good relationship with.
He continued that he was still going to training but once in a while, would go out clubbing and at that point, he was spiritually down until Tony Schumacher, the great, legendary German goalkeeper came around.
“Every day, he was shouting at me in training. Sometimes we would play matches five against five or seven against seven which is very fast and he was always on me. I was living right next to him so I took all my courage and then I went to see him. I remember the words of my father, ‘If you have a problem, speak out’ so I asked him why he is always shouting at me and he told me it was because I was not doing enough.
He said ‘you’re black, don’t forget. You have to be twice as good. We are five foreigners here and only three can play. You’re young and you must do more. You’re not doing enough’. It really made click and I told myself that this man likes me because if he did not like me, he would not be on me like that”.
According to Tony Baffoe, Schumacher’s advice made a lot of sense to him, hence he is passing on the message to his children and all youth out there to be committed, focused, humble, disciplined, and go the extra mile because even when it seems no one is paying attention, there is always someone watching.
By: Maureen Dedei Quaye