One of Ghana’s most decorated footballers, Asamoah Gyan called time on his career recently, perhaps a tad too late, having held on hopes to be given another runout in the national team.
After an illustrious career that saw him play across three continents, the forward, adoringly referred to as Baby Jet, has hung his boots, leaving us with fond, and sometimes painful memories of what would have been.
It is definitely not easy to just forget about a player who has featured in three World Cup finals and seven Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals. Asamoah Gyan retires as Ghana’s all-time leading scorer with 51 goals scored across 109 matches.
Only Andre Ayew, son of the legendary Abedi Pele has played more matches than Gyan in the Ghana national team colors. Still, he keeps his place high up the Ghana football class.
Knack for goals
Apart from his high knack for goals, Gyan will definitely be remembered for one other reason that didn’t particularly leave the country, and Africa as a whole, happy.
At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, at the height of a momentous performance at the competition, Ghana had the opportunity to become the first African nation to reach the semi-finals of the competition. Ghana won a penalty after the infamous Luis Suarez handball, only for Gyan to step up and hit the bar with his penalty, minutes to full time. Ghana went on to lose the game and a teary Gyan has been the image carried by most Ghanaians after their star failed to rise to the occasion. He never really got the perfect opportunity to redeem himself.
At retirement, he has six World Cup goals but that miss will be remembered more. This will make a huge part of Ghanaian folklore, unfortunately.
We can only hope his music will be remembered more and for better reasons. The man who scored on his international debut after just five minutes of coming on, as a 17-year-old also scored on his Premier League debut after joining Sunderland in 2010.
Highlighted by controversy
Gyan’s career, as well as the years before retirement, have been highlighted by controversy, and that was one of the reasons for his omission from the national team.
Ironically, the team has not performed any better in his absence. In fact, betting on Ghana not winning has been more of a winning bet than otherwise.
In the ongoing AFCON qualifiers, it has proven easier to take advantage of the Bet365 bonus, which comes with a guarantee of up to £30 in bet credits from the world renown bookmaker. This Bet365 joining bonus for new customers offer is well-detailed on Wincomparator. While Ghana are top of their group in the AFCON qualifiers, they are in a precarious situation, leading by just a point at a stage of the competition when her peers have already secured qualification to the competition.
Andre Ayew, one of Gyan’s former teammates is headed towards the end of his international career and perhaps this is the time the Black Stars would have wished to have a peak Gyan in the team.
