Former Black Stars Captain has disclosed his reasons for threatening to leave the Black Stars camp during the 2008 African Cup Of Nations.
Asamoah Gyan was disgracefully abused by the Ghanaian public after failing to convert a late opportunity in Ghana’s 2-1 win over Guinea in the group stage.
The Black Stars Forward even though very young, was quite crucial to the the National team.He explained that due to his tender age,he was really new to criticisms and took them very personal which influenced his decision to abandon the Ghana camp only for the then Ghana President John Agyekum Kuffour to step in to ensure that the Forward rethinks his decision.
“At that time I didn’t feel any criticism, starting from the colts level it was like I was being pampered until that time. I didn’t know anything about criticism until that time,” Gyan told Pulse Ghana.
“I felt like the criticism was unfair to me because they criticized me and I think it was personal in a game that we won, which Ghanaian were expecting like 10-0. People didn’t understand what was going on at that time, so I thought I was treated unfairly.”
“My mother called me and she was crying. I felt it wasn’t the right time to do that in the middle of the tournament and I felt that the whole nation was against me and at that tender age, I was like 20 years, so I felt that the whole nation was against me.”
“I sacrificed for the nation. I should have been out of the tournament, but I felt that because of the love I have for the country I decided to come because I had a contract to sign for Manchester City, but I ignored the contract. I remember my agent told me I should boycott the Africa Cup of Nations and go for rehab and go and sign the contract.“
“But I told him the tournament was very important to me because Ghana was hosting it and I missed the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations and that (2008) would have been my first Africa Cup of Nations and Ghana was hosting, so there was a lot of things going through my mind so that was why I got hurt and I decided to just let it go.”
Asamoah Gyan holds the record as the country’s all-time top scorer with 51 goals.