Summer 2000. After a positive season but stained in the final by the playoff for the Champions League lost against Inter, Alberto Malesani's Parma decided to invest heavily in the summer market.

Parma lost Hernan Crespo, who after years moved to Lazio for the then record figure of £35 million plus the transfer of Sergio Conceiçao and Matias Almeyda.

From Udinese an African midfielder whose name was on everyone's lips and considered among the most promising on the world scene, Stephen Appiah arrived.

Raised in the Hearts of Oak in Accra, the Ghanaian capital, Appiah is a strong central midfielder who combined many qualities, and at the age of 17 he decided to leave for Europe.

First in Turkey, where he remained on trial for one month at Galatasaray (who will decide not to sign him), then in Italy, in Udinese, discovered and wanted by Pietro Lo Monaco, then an observer for the Friulians.

In Udine, although very young, he began to impose himself also thanks to the relationship with Alberto Zaccheroni, who helped him a lot to grow even off the field.

In 1999 a serious health problem led him to Chicago to heal himself, causing him to lose most of the season but once recovered he returned to Italy and ended the championship.

In 2000, after three years of Serie A, the big teams started to put their eyes on him, and as often happened for young people, Parma moved first.

Contact with Udinese already in the spring months was made with Parma managing to wrest the young African and making sure that he was to be the midfielder of the future.

He remained in Parma for two years, collecting 49 appearances and two goals, being transferred in 2002 to Brescia on loan, to give him the opportunity to play with more games and with less pressure.

In Brescia he exploded by playing more advanced and scoring many goals, taking advantage of the great work of Toni and Baggio, and very good at splitting defence.

At the end of the season, Parma sold him to Juventus, where the adventure did not go very well.

Two years at Juventus and then finally in Turkey, at Fenerbahce, then the return to Italy in Bologna, Cesena and the end of his career in Serbia at Vojvodina, in 2012.