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Opinion: Ghana needs 11 Asamoah Gyans to win a World Cup
Gyan has often been unfairly used as a scapegoat, but if all his international team-mates could boast his mental toughness, then the Black Stars would go places.
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It was Asamoah Gyan, yet he remains unbroken and unintimidated.
This is a man whose confidence was rocked when he was aged just 20. He has been often unfairly scapegoated, his reputation hammered and his allegiance questioned. The 2008 AFCON, in particular, represented the most trying moment in the international career of the newly signed Kayserispor striker.
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The then 20-year-old was responsible for missing a number of gilt-edged chances at the tournament, and was immediately made the object of scrutiny by the majority of Ghanaians.
He was criticized, catechized and even handed death threats – all that for choosing to serve his nation. His family house was evaded, with his mother not being spared of harassment from some irate local fans.
The Black Stars faithful can sometimes be unforgiving, just like the Ghanaian media is also sometimes ruthless and inconsiderate. But Gyan’s own case has always been one of unappreciation, ungratefulness and a blatant lack of respect. Criticisms are good, but they are even better when constructive; but can we say the striker’s criticisms have always been justified?
His treatment, without any equivocation, has been similar to what some Columbians meted out to Andres Escobar for missing a penalty at the 1994 World Cup, before he was eventually gruesomely murdered in July that year.
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The 31-year-old is in his 14th year with the Ghana national team, however, he is yet to be given his rightful place, despite his impressive outputs for the Black Stars.
For a player who has scored more international goals than legendary icons like Patrick Kluivert, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Raul Gonzalez, Francesco Totti and Alan Shearer, the least he deserves is affection from his own people.
But, unfortunately, all through Gyan’s international career he has only been antagonised and vilified. He has almost always been the one to bear the cross for all of the national team’s lows, with his achievements relegated instead of being equally highlighted.
They say he killed Africa’s hopes of making it to a first ever semi-final at the World Cup, but never was it ever said that his wonderful solo goal against the USA in the round-of-16 stage brought about that whole dream. The say he missed Ghana’s first ever penalty on the world stage, but they refuse to acknowledge the fact that he was the same man who scored the Black Stars’ first-ever goal at the World Cup. They say his wastefulness cost Ghana the AFCON trophy in 2008 and 2012, but very little has been said about the goals he scored in the qualifying rounds to get the Black Stars to both tournaments.
But in the face of all these Gyan still has his head up. He has continued to show the kind of mental fortitude that very few can boast of, and has never given up despite the tumult that has consistently come his way. And it is that same kind of mental toughness that led him into taking a penalty against USA in a recent friendly, despite quitting penalty-taking duties five year's ago.
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That begs the question of how far the Black Stars could go if each player was a fighter like Gyan; if each player had the might to stand such harsh conditions.
This is a national team that has not won any major trophy since 1982 despite boasting some of the continent’s greats in the last three and half decades. The bane of the Black Stars has always lied between breaking that psychological barrier when close to a trophy, and a lack of self-belief.
The former is a topic for another day, but the latter is something Gyan readily exudes. And that is best typified by his reaction after he missed a last-gasp penalty in Ghana’s quarter-final showdown with Uruguay at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Gyan had the chance to win the game for Ghana – with virtually the last kick – however he failed to convert, with his shot hitting the cross bar. It was a career-changing moment for a man who, at that point, had the hopes of an entire nation on his shoulders. And it would have been understandable if he had decided not to step up for the shoot-out session that followed, taking into consideration the mood he was in.
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But instead of shying away, he mustered courage, put away his initial blunder, stepped up and scored the Black Stars’ first in the shoot-out. Had his other international team-mates managed to show just a fraction of his mental strength, Ghana would have been in the semi-final and probably gone on to lift the World Cup.
Gyan has continuously shown how mentally tough he is, and if other Black Stars players could also put on that sort of thick skin then the national team would definitely be going places.
With all due respect to the current crop of Black Stars players, but the fact is that none of them – for the better part of the last decade – has put his career on the line for the nation like Gyan has. When things were tough in 2006, Michael Essien chose playing for Chelsea rather than for the Black Stars at the AFCON. After the 2014 World Cup Kwadwo Asaomah tolled the same line, preferring to focus on club duties with Juventus rather than feature for the national team. And it has always been that way with majority of the players.
Gyan, though, has been an exception to that; he has always availed himself to national team duties whenever he’s called upon. So if Ghanaians still idolise and eulogise Stephen Appiah for being brave enough to choose Ghana over Juventus during the 2004 Olympic Games, why then can’t Gyan be held in the same bracket?
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Gyan has often played through the pain for the Black Stars without complaining. He has given his all for the red, gold and green since playing his debut game in 2003. In 2015 he helped Ghana to the final of the AFCON despite seriously battling with malaria.
And in the summer of 2016, the former Liberty Professionals striker had his move to Championship outfit Reading called off after rejecting a clause which would have seen him decide against playing for his nation at the 2017 AFCON.
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Gyan has no doubt paid his dues to the national team and it’s high time his efforts are well appreciated. His situation is very similar to that of Lionel Messi and Wayne Rooney for Argentina and England respectively. The aforementioned duo, albeit being the all-time top-scorers for their national teams, have never really had their outputs appreciated by the home faithful.
But the difference is that both Messi and Rooney are still seen as national heroes. That kind of status, though, has evaded Gyan despite him scoring 51 times to emerge as Ghana’s all-time top-scorer.
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He may not have the heart of Stephen Appiah, neither can he boast of the kind of gifted talent that Abedi Ayew ‘Pele’ possessed, but Gyan is a Ghana legend in his own right. And if only the national team could parade 11 players with his level of hard work, patriotism and dedication, then we would be talking about a totally different Black Stars – one that could win that elusive fifth AFCON title, as well as the World Cup.
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