Balogun opens up on why he went into Ghana's dressing room; what he told Addo, Kuffour, Baffoe

Leon Balogun cut a forlorn figure after the final whistle as Nigeria failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar after a disappointing 1-1 draw with Ghana at the MKO Abiola Stadium in Abuja on March 29, 2022.

After a tense second leg, Balogun laid down on the turf, burying his face in his hands and had to be comforted by a Ghanaian player.
 

The 2022 World Cup was likely to be his last major tournament had the Super Eagles qualified as he would be 38 years by the time the 2026 edition holds in United States, Canada and Mexico.

Despite the disappointment on the Super Eagles missing out on the World Cup, Balogun later managed to put his emotions to one side and visited the Black Stars' players and coaching staff in their dressing room to congratulate them on qualifying for the Mundial.

The central defender has revealed exactly what the told the Ghana coach Otto Addo, who was born in Germany, and Black Stars legend Sammy Kuffour and Anthony Baffoe when he went into their dressing room. 

"Probably that was my last chance to be in the World Cup as well looking at my age. Never say never but I have to be realistic as well," Balogun said on The Beautiful Game Podcast.

"That was tough but I thought to myself that it will be the first World Cup for most of them and I remember how happy I was that day so I just thought let me go over, shake hands, congratulate them because as I said I think they deserved to go because at the end of the day we didn't have enough questions for them.

"I just thought that's the right thing to do because at the end of the day it's about fair play as well. 

"Obviously I knew their manager Otto Addo from Germany so spoke to him a bit afterwards and Chris Houghton the former Brighton manager. Sammy Kuffour was there, Bayern legend for me, and Anthony Baffoe, whom I've known as well, met him before.

"Could speak a bit of German with them, I was like listen fair play, your tactical change second half killed us but all the best going forward because he's a young manager as well, he'd just taken over the job. 

"It was really to wish them well and I told them to do West Africa proud because it's in their hands now. "

The Black Stars were eliminated in the group stage of the 2022 World Cup after suffering defeats to Portugal and Uruguay. 

Ifeanyi Emmanuel 

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