Asamoah Gyan: Top 6 moments from the Black Stars skipper in 2017

The captain of the Ghana Black Stars will not go through a year without making Ghanaians happy, sad or angry.

Asamoah Gyan also known as "Baby Jet" gave us great moments we will forever cherish in the year 2017.

We look through a few things Asamoah Gyan got involved in that made the Ghanaian public, excited, sad, envious or proud of him.

Asamoah Gyan achieves landmark of 50 international goals

The skipper of the Ghana Black Stars scored 50 goals for the Ghana Black Stars in June 2017. The goal scored by the 32 year old was recorded against Ethiopia. That was Ghana’s returnee head coach James Kwesi Appiah’s first competitive game with the Black Stars in his second stint.

The first goal in the 10th minute of that game saw Asamoah Gyan slotting home a header in the 10th minute which was done to the amazement.

That was indeed an amazing feet but when it comes to issues of Asamoah Gyan there usually has to be a spark of controversy.

The captain of the Ghana Black Stars in celebrating his 50th goal for the national team had his captain armband customized with his picture.

The deputy captain Andre Ayew then went on to take an uncostomized armband from the bench.

This brought about a lot of brouhaha and the public did not take it lightly, but Gyan said he was inspired by the likes of Francesco Totti, Daniele De Rossi and Javier Zanetti who also customised their armbands. He further explained that he discussed it with his deputy Andre Ayew, because he anticipated that a 50th goal was forth coming and celebrating it with a customised armband was in order.

The captains

The gesture by Asamoah Gyan became the talk of town for close to weeks and it was a great moment for Asamoah Gyan in the year 2017 but the controversy took a shine out of it.

Asamoah Gyan establishing businesses and grabbing endorsement deals

The runner up in the Asamoah Gyan moments goes to the new enterprises the Ghana Black Stars captain opened in the course of the year. Asamoah Gyan had two enterprises which took Ghana by storm. The first one which was announced by the President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo in October,2017 was the Baby Jet Airlines.

The announcement came after the Ghanaian Striker had obtained a license to operate this business which is to deal in cargo at the start of his operations.

The other business which came a few days after was that of the sachet water business. The name of the water was “Paradise Pack Ice Water”. The emergence of this product got Ghanaians in awe and it also got them pleased with the kind of business acumen Asamoah Gyan has acquired over the years. Asamoah Gyan is on record to have close to 10 businesses.

He also has had a number of endorsement deals throughout his career. This includes the big one, “Run Energy Drink” which was also mistaken as part of his business empire by some people was out doored in November, 2017.

Asamoah Gyan charters flight for Black Stars players from Congo

In August, The captain of the Ghana Black Stars played in the 2018 world cup qualifying game against Congo in Ghana and he was a pale shadow of himself and that saw the Ghana Black Stars draw one all against the Red Devils to put their chances of qualifying in danger.

The Ghana Black Stars team suffered from that atrocious performance from Asamoah Gyan as well as the rest of the team and that got Ghana drawing 1-1 to Congo in a must win game in Kumasi.

After the game, Asamoah Gyan spoke to the team’s lackluster performance as he said the team lacked desire. In the return leg there was absolute desire expressed by the skipper. Unbelievably, Asamoah Gyan reportedly spent $62,000 to get players leave Congo in order for the players to get to their various clubs on time. Gyan did not play the game at the Kintele Stadium in Brazzavile due to injuries.

The Black Stars managed to win 5-1 and as the rest of the team were administering a demolishing exercise to the Congolese team, the captain was making arrangements for the players to fly without any quarms.

However the Deputy Sports Minister expressed discontent with the captain’s gesture as he spoke to the Sly Tetteh memorial lecture. He did say Asamoah Gyan did that only because he had the money contrary to Gyan’s assertion that the government had reverted from an arrangement to return by chartered flight to that of commercial.

Asamoah Gyan out doored Sports Complex

There is the cliché to give back to society when you can. This is because society builds you as a person. Asamoah Gyan decided to give back to an institution which forms part of his story as a footballer. That was no other than his alma mater Accra Academy. Asamoah Gyan was able to finance a state the art AstroTurf pitch which was dubbed the “Asamoah Gyan Sports Complex.”

The sports complex was commissioned in July 2017 and in attendance were the rank and file in governance, football administration and players of both past and present dispensation. The former President of Ghana Jerry John Rawlings commissioned the facility which is set to be accompanied by tartan tracks and a sports hall in the near future. The facility cost Asamoah Gyan GH70000 which came out if the Asamoah Gyan Foundation. The Foundation is an entity established to give back to society and improve the lives of people in Ghana.

Asamoah Gyan breaks Ghana AFCON goal scorers’ record

Asamoah Gyan went into the 2017 African Cup of Nations as a player who had equaled the record of Reverend Osei Kofi in the African Cup of Nations. That was actually quite illustrious following the fact Asamoah Gyan’s first African Cup of Nations in 2008 was not really best as he suffered a lot of criticisms because he missed a truckload of chances in the first two games.

Asamoah Gyan had packed his bags alongside his brother Baffuor Gyan after the second group game against Namibia but then he was convinced to stay and his only goal of the tournament remained the opening spot kick against Guinea in the opening game by virtue of Ghana being host.

We fast forward to 2015 African Cup of Nations in Equitorial Guinea where Asamoah Gyan had 6 African Cup goals to his credit on the back of a great, decent and fair AFCONs in 2010,2012 and 2013 respectively.

Gyan had accumulated 6 goals in the AFCON within that period. Asamoah Gyan scored in a second group game against Algeria to grab a late winner for Ghana. That very goal had him join Revered Osei Kofi as the only two Ghanaians to score 7 AFCON goals in their careers. It would be important to note that at the end of that tournament deputy captain of the Black Stars Andre Ayew followed closely with 6 goals in the all-time ranking of goals by Ghanaians in the AFCON.

In the 2017 African Cup of Nations in Gabon, Ghana opened the tournament with a 1-0 victory over Uganda kind courtesy an Andre Ayew penalty. That will definitely see Ayew join the 7 goal club. Asamoah Gyan in the second game against Mali responded by scoring a 21st minute header against Mali.

Ghana won the game by the very goal that saw Asamoah Gyan break the record of highest scoring Ghanaian at the African Cup of Nations. The tournament ended with Andre Ayew and Asamoah Gyan to be at par with 8 goals as the former was to score against DR Congo in a quarter final clash.

Asamoah Gyan moves to Kayserispor

Asamoah Gyan has some level of charisma which follows him wherever he goes. Asamoah Gyan at the end of the 2016/2017 season was a free agent after his contract with Shanghai SIPG ended. Gyan signed a two year contract with the Chinese club with a weekly wage worth £227,000 a week.

The two years with Shangai had one plagued with injuries and the other due to that had him being sent to UAE on loan to Al Ahli. The contract expired and Gyan returned to Europe with Turkish club Kayserispor signing him for two years.

That saw him have a reduced wage as he was set to earn €550,000 at the club. The one thing that made this particular transfer a memorable was the manner the fans of Keyserispor received their new signing in their numbers. That was a verification of the biblical statement “A prophet is not accepted in his town”.