Asamoah Gyan’s Place In Ghana Football

He blew the most glorious opportunity that hard work presented to Ghana. The penalty he shot wide, much to the relief of Uruguay in the 2010 world cup hosted by South Africa.

A blunder that represented the unreadiness to grab the feat to have become Africa’s first spot in the world cup semis. Well, in Qatar 2022, Morocco plucked that fruit; it only had to jump higher since the reward is not a low-hanging fruit.

However, one blot cannot be the sole point of reference for the assessment of the career that proved worthier to all intents and purposes, with a thrusting that had nose pointed into the skies, on the career’s linear curve. He was the answer to a certain vacuum and replacement for past heroes, but his approach was extraordinary. The uncanny sixth sense personified.

Now let’s watch these. The moments of truth. Two examples will suffice to launch us into the depths and heights of his football career. Ghana versus the United States in the world cup South Africa hosted. Asamoah Gyan stepped forward, and this was not exactly in anticipation of the ball that was moving at the US goal, for it was embedded with the potential of causing a goal-mouth melee, from which other players could harvest. Instead, the supplier lobbed a volley at him.

Gyan glided forward, losing his balance in the haste to get into a good scoring position. The ball kept moving to his left whilst also being pursued by an American defender shoving from behind. Gyan nearly fell, he was also unsettled by the hard-tackling defender, and the ball marginally on his left meant that he had to use his unusual left foot to kick the ball from an acute angle. Four troubles, one god.

The addition to the three impediments was the angle to shoot from. In a rare quicksilver action, Gyan pulled a surprise. The ball was still rolling on the pitch at a very fast pace, and he blasted it in with just one bounce of the ball, a style that is not given to amateurs. He made a game out of the half chance, his finish sublime, dazing off a host of American defenders resolutely in the fight of their lives. That was Ghana’s winning goal in the epic match to set the stage for their bitter rivalry.

At the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations hosted by Gabon, he unexpectedly broke chains to finish off a move in the dying minutes against the highly-rated Algeria. Ghana was in the tightest of corners, following a winless streak in their group, so she needed to win this one, nothing less, and there were only seven minutes left in the troubling goalless at this stage. Gyan pounced on a ball, coasted deep into Algerian territory, and again challenged from behind.

It is worth mentioning that it is no easy affair to control or take hold of the ball, much less keep it in play in the action all others are chasing up. Asamoah Gyan did exactly that, and the speedster still managed to outpace all the others. He buried the ball quickly before the Algerians could see exactly what was happening in that hysteric moment. Ghana held onto this to qualify. The fire in their competitive opponents was extinguished.

These outstanding moments were cappers on his profundity as a world-class striker. Of course, he had made significant progress from his days in Ghana’s domestic football as a Liberty Professionals player to international top-flight leagues and the influencer that he became at world cups since Germany 2006.

The revelation that Asamoah Gyan became, many considered him the new nugget after Ghana football began to wane with the lack of predators in the senior national team. His knack for goals was not in the vein of opportunism but ones that were beckoned with vision, conjured with magic, and enforced by grace. There have been many good strikers in Ghana, yet Gyan’s style increasingly looked like Abedi Pele’s, another gem whose era preceded Gyan’s. More of a schemer, Ghana’s Pele always devised clever means of outwitting defenders to break deadlocks. As the football game advances, it is becoming more difficult to settle matches without the extra mile factor. Only extraordinary players like Gyan are able to pull chestnuts from blazing fires.

It is not a perfect album, as was the case with most human endeavours, yet his enlargement in the sport is definitely a talking point. Without any shred of doubt, Gyan was the find Ghana made in the darkness after years of groping or looking for top performers. He rubbed shoulders with football greats, and these include Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o, who was ever dangerous in the penalty box, and ivory coast’s Didier Drogba, who could curl free kicks to score goals. Gyan’s own was his bursting out of the crowd, and with this uniqueness, conjured something out of nothing.

The Ghana Report will like to say ‘ayekoo’ to Asamoah Gyan, one of the most illustrious footballers Ghana has ever had, good enough to have made the headlines.

His retirement from the game ushers a new dawn, presenting itself as the opportunity for coaches and their teams to review his clips to learn from them. How he was able to produce the goals and contribute to the total team play are crucial vital statistics that must not be left in the dark but glow to inspire others. Asamoah Gyan’s pair of boots will definitely be oversize for feet that only stomp.