• Asamoah Gyan gained fame with his performances at the 2010 FIFA World Cup

• Gyan played one senior season in Ghana before joining Udinese

• The forward earned cult status in his only season with Sunderland

Akshat Mehrish “It is time... that voice has been clear in my ears, and I have succumbed to it; it is time. It is time to hang up the jersey and boots in glory as I officially retire from active football.” In so many words, Asamoah Gyan confirmed what had been rumbling in his mind for some time. His time to officially step away from the football field had come, and, with a poignant message that promised his continued involvement with the sport in other, more indirect ways, Gyan revealed his plans to a fraternity that had given him so much over the years. Asamoah Gyan’s first shot to fame during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. As the football fiesta reached the African shores for the first time in history, the Ghanaian became one of its protagonists, albeit one who wouldn’t get his desired ending. Throughout the tournament, Ghana had relied on Gyan to help them out of difficult situations, and, for his part, the forward had kept his end of the bargain.

However, when faced with perhaps the most significant single kick in the history of African football, Gyan stuttered; he sent his effort from the spot in the final minute of the quarter-final against Uruguay over the crossbar. Ghana lost the shootout, spurning the opportunity to be the first African team to reach the FIFA World Cup semi-finals. “Today, any time alone, it still haunts me,” Asamoah Gyan would tell TV3 Ghana later. “Sometimes I feel like the world should go back again so I can redeem myself, but I know this is something that will haunt me for the rest of my life.” While that miss bothered Gyan for years to come, he didn’t let it define him. Four years later, in Brazil, the Ghanaian scored his fifth and sixth FIFA World Cup finals goals, becoming the highest African scorer in the tournament’s history. Gyan’s last international cap came in 2019; at the time, he had scored 51 times in 109 appearances for the Black Stars, the colloquial name bestowed upon the Ghana senior men’s team. Those tallies, at the time of his retirement four years after his last appearance for the national team, make Asamoah Gyan its highest scorer and second-highest capped player.

Born and raised in Accra, Ghana’s capital on the Atlantic, Gyan grew up competing for local sides before graduating into senior football with Liberty Professionals. In his only senior campaign in his native country, Gyan scored 10 in 16, leaving an indelible mark of his talent en route to signing a deal with Italy’s Udinese. Gyan’s initial years with the Udine-based outfit were actually spent in Modena, a three-hour ride from the Slovenian border into the Italian heartland, where he delivered modest returns in over 50 appearances. He didn’t have the same explosive impact on his return to Udinese as some of the club’s other famous alums, such as Alexis Sanchez and Antonio de Natale, and promptly left to renew his career in France with Rennes. A season after his move to Rennes, the Ghanaian hit his best form, scoring 13 in 30. Those returns, overlapping with the 2010 FIFA World Cup immediately after, earned him a move to the Premier League ahead of the 2010/11 season.

A season with Sunderland earned Gyan a cult status with the club’s faithful, courtesy of his goals, home and away, against Tottenham Hotspur and in a memorable triumph away at Chelsea. But, the Ghanaian did not stick around for long; he joined the United Arab Emirates’ Al Ain the following summer, where he spent the three-and-a-half most productive years of his career. Asamoah Gyan scored 123 in 123 for Al Ain, producing goals at a faster rate than he accumulated appearances until his final half-season, and won three titles. He left Al Ain in 2015 to try his luck in China before enjoying later spells in Turkey and India. Internationally, Gyan represented Ghana in seven Africa Cup of Nations, finishing second twice, third once, and fourth thrice. He was also a part of Ghana’s first roster for the FIFA World Cup in 2006, as well as the subsequent two in 2010 and 2014. When combined, Gyan netted consecutively across nine major international tournaments - the AFCON and the World Cup - earning a rare record, which he shares with Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo.