46: Nii Lamptey, Aston Villa, Merlin’s Premier League 95 Sticker Collection

Richard Allinson is at the helm today for an incredible story which highlights how much some footballers go through before they come to our attention. Football has the awesome power to provide opportunities to people from all backgrounds and today’s subject overcame a truly traumatic childhood in order to lace up his boots for the first time. The fact he’s still going and giving back so much doesn’t exactly do much for the overpaid and pampered tag that so many people seem to want to attach to footballers whenever possible. Rich warned me when he sent this over that we might need to rename this post “A Sticker’s Worth A Dissertation”. It’s fair to say that even 10,000 words wouldn’t be enough. Over to Rich.

The other day, whilst I was at work, out of nowhere my brain suddenly posed the question “I wonder what Nii Lamptey is up to nowadays?” This took me aback somewhat as, no offence to Mr Lamptey, I haven’t given him a second thought since about 1996. Anyway, not wanting to leave my subconscious mind in a state of flux, I thought I’d look him up and I’m glad I did because I think it is reasonable to say is that Lamptey has one of the most incredible life stories of any footballer going. 

Born in Ghana in 1974 into what was by all accounts a childhood of neglect and abuse (he was regularly beaten, lashed and burned by his alcoholic father) Lamptey sought solace and refuge in football. After his parents divorced, Lamptey’s stepfather threw him out of the house aged only eight years old. Lamptey found a new home in a Muslim football camp, but had to convert from Christianity in order be allowed to join. Remember, he was eight years old at the time. By contrast, when I was eight I was convinced I had a realistic chance of winning Wrestlemania. Lamptey’s natural ability on the pitch shone through though and he was soon called up to the Ghanaian junior squads where he impressed at the U16 World Championships in 1989. This brought attention onto the Ghanaian and a logical conclusion to draw would be that he got swallowed up in the youth academy of a major European side, thus putting him on a conveyor belt to fame, riches and a place in a Panini sticker book. Nope. 

Wanting to push his career on Lamptey had expressed a desire to play abroad, a wish that didn’t sit well with the Ghanaian FA who subsequently confiscated his passport. So, in 1989, the young Lamptey took himself off to the bus station where, in return for payment, a local taxi driver said he would pretend that Nii was his son in order to smuggle him into Nigeria. This was no quick hop over the Shropshire border between England and Wales either as Lamptey successfully managed to evade detection at three different border crossings before he eventually arrived in Lagos. 

Lamptey was scouted by numerous clubs during this time, including Queens Park Rangers and Glasgow Rangers, but it was the interest from Belgian side Anderlecht that was to shape the next stage of young Nii’s career. On learning of their interest, he went on to seek out Nigerian national team captain and Anderlecht centre half Stephen Keshi after an international match in the nation’s capital. Having heard about his prodigious talent, Keshi persuaded Lamptey to join him in Belgium and the youngster was given a fake Nigerian passport that stated that he was Keshi’s son. Lamptey was smuggled out of Africa and into Europe in a three week long journey in the back of lorries and indeed his future manager Big Ron Atkinson once said that Nii had told him that he was virtually kidnapped to make this journey. At least, this is one version of the story that I have found. Another one is that he took a flight to Belgium using his illegal passport. Either way, he left Nigeria. 

Once in Belgium, his first professional club was alongside Keshi at Anderlecht, where he made his debut aged 16 following a rule change by the Belgian FA which allowed him to play and become the youngest player in Belgian football history. He made a goalscoring debut in 1990 after replacing Belgian legend Luc Nilis and he went on to score in each of his first five games as well as in the UEFA Cup quarter-finals. Despite interest from other clubs, including Marseille, after 14 games and seven goals he was loaned to Dutch giants PSV Eindhoven where he was reunited with former Anderlecht boss Aad de Mos. It was around this time that he won the 1991 under 17 World Cup with Ghana and excitement around Lamptey stepped up a million levels when Pelé described him as “my natural successor”. What the Brazilian legend was effectively saying was “he is one of the greatest footballers to have ever lived” which, really, is a rather bold assertion, not to mention putting an inordinate amount of pressure onto such young shoulders. I forgot to mention - he also won an Olympic bronze medal at the 1992 games in Barcelona.

He suffered a groin injury towards the end of his time in Belgium but Lamptey excelled on joining PSV, scoring 10 goals in 22 games, topping the club’s scoring charts in the 1993/94 season. Despite this good form PSV, having brought in some young Brazilian lad called Ronaldo, let Lamptey return to his parent club. However, he wasn’t to be there for very long before he moved on to the land of milk and honey: the West Midlands of England. Lamptey was signed by Ron Atkinson for Aston Villa in 1994, in what must’ve been a pretty exciting signing for Villans’ fans as after all they’d basically just signed Pelé. He started well, scoring three goals in two League Cup games against Wigan Athletic but that was that as far as goals went and he only made 10 appearances in his one season at Villa Park. Lamptey has described the move to England as the worst decision of his career and one that he still regrets to this day. He has outlined that his short stature and skilful game didn’t fit in with the physical kick and rush nature of the Premier League, and that he was unsettled by the change in manager from Big Ron to Little Brian. Sorry, Brian Little. This ill-fated spell started one of the sharpest declines the footballing world has ever seen. On leaving Villa, he joined up with Atkinson again at Coventry City in 1996 where he played only six games and scored a couple of League Cup goals and it was after his time at Highfield Road he was to redefine the word journeyman as he played for ten clubs in nine years in nine different countries. 

It was whilst on this nomadic journey that personal tragedy was to strike Lamptey. During his time with Argentine club Boca Juniors in 1997, he welcomed a son into the world who he named Diego after Boca legend Diego Maradona. However, the baby soon became very ill, ultimately passing away at only four months old from a lung disease. Understandably, Lamptey skipped training and matches to spend time with his son whilst he battled the illness, but it is reported that, rather incredibly, Boca didn’t approve of his actions and took the heartless decision to sack him as a result. Lamptey was also to tragically lose a young daughter to the same disease whilst he was playing in Germany only a couple of years later. This turmoil was amplified even further when it was revealed that he wasn’t the biological father of his three remaining children, which subsequently led to him divorcing his wife. 

As already mentioned, Lamptey’s career took him around the globe, with his final stop coming in 2008 at South African side Jomo Cosmos. Since retiring from the game, Lamptey has gone on to become a cattle and sheep farmer in his native Ghana. Alongside this he has also founded the Glow-Lamp International School to ensure that children have the chance to learn to read and write; an opportunity he didn’t receive himself. Lamptey also has a football academy in Ghana that he coaches at and had a stint as a pundit during the 2014 World Cup. In addition to this, he got engaged again and had another two children. 

So the answer to my question of “I wonder what Nii Lamptey is up to nowadays” seems to be “a lot”. What a bloody inspiration. I have had to miss out a fair bit of his story and I could really go on and on about him for much longer such is the nature of his life and career. However, these posts aren’t really meant to require chapters so I’ll leave it there.