Ghana’s all-time top scorer, Asamoah Gyan announced his permanent retirement from international football Monday evening.
The 33-year-old striker’s decision, which comes 32 days to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations – a tournament he had been eager to honour as his 11th major competition in the Ghana colours, was made public via his official Twitter handle.
“I have represented the proud colours of our country in 10 major tournaments from the Olympics, World Cups, and in the African Nations Cup with different coaches,” read a portion of the announcement.
Gyan is unhappy about developments surrounding his captaincy at Egypt hence the decision to “recuse” himself from the Afcon and “retire from the national team permanently.”
“As an active footballer yet to retire, I have been in the team since 2003 and I have played with some members of the technical team who were my seniors. Through such periods, there were no times substantive captains were part of a team in a tournament and had to surrender their captaincy to other players and served in different capacities…
The 33-year-old striker’s decision, which comes 32 days to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations – a tournament he had been eager to honour as his 11th major competition in the Ghana colours, was made public via his official Twitter handle.
“I have represented the proud colours of our country in 10 major tournaments from the Olympics, World Cups, and in the African Nations Cup with different coaches,” read a portion of the announcement.
Gyan is unhappy about developments surrounding his captaincy at Egypt hence the decision to “recuse” himself from the Afcon and “retire from the national team permanently.”
“As an active footballer yet to retire, I have been in the team since 2003 and I have played with some members of the technical team who were my seniors. Through such periods, there were no times substantive captains were part of a team in a tournament and had to surrender their captaincy to other players and served in different capacities…
“Upon consultation with my family and team, and as an active footballer and captain of the national team, if the decision of the coach is to give the captaincy of the tournament to another player, while I am named in the team for the tournament, I wish to recuse myself from the tournament. I also wish to retire from the national team permanently; not pretending my presence would not fuel the purported undermining the country has seen under my captaincy,” Gyan’s statement also read.
Footy-Ghana.com gathers that Asamoah Gyan’s decision was influenced by whispers from a meeting held between the Black Stars technical team and the GFA Normalization Committee on Monday. According to sources, it was decided that Gyan be made the General Captain
Asamoah Gyan earned his first senior cap for Ghana at age 17 and scored 51 goals in 106 games.
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