It was in the wee hours of Sunday before the much speculated news was confirmed, Asamoah Gyan had signed for Legon Cities Football Club.
The legendary striker is back to the Ghanaian top-flight where his career took off 17 years ago. Back then, he was a player for Liberty Professionals and Gyan scored 10 goals in 16 games . The numbers were impressive enough for him to secure a move to Udinese without completing the season.
Since then, he has featured for Modena, Rennes, Sunderland in the Premier League, Al Ain, Kayserispor, Shanghai SIPG, Al Ahli Dubai and NorthEast United.
The 34-year-old’s best spell was at Al Ain where he scored 91 goals in 88 matches.
Now Ghana’s all time topscorer says he is back home and he has assured he will deliver.
https://twitter.com/ASAMOAH_GYAN3/status/1322825542345908225?s=19
But what does his return mean for Legon Cities and the Ghana Premier League as a whole?
The former Ghana captain’s coach at Accra Academy explains.
“Asamoah will draw a huge crowd to the Stadium some may even want to touch him, so for me he will be a great impact on the league” he told 3Sports.
As soon as Gyan was announced the international media hoped on the news. BBC and Goal.com posted the news on their website. CAF and FIFA World Cup all tweeted about his move and this will prove useful to the league as they will all want to monitor Gyan.
𝙱𝙰𝙱𝚈 𝙹𝙴𝚃 is coming home! 🇬🇭✈️ https://t.co/Rk0xYieSlm pic.twitter.com/Lg3UVaI8TW
— CAF_Online (@CAF_Online) November 1, 2020
🔝 The highest scoring African in #WorldCup history has returned to Ghana ✍️
🇬🇭 Good luck at @LegonCitiesFC, Asamoah 👍 https://t.co/I2GSz0mAgx
— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) November 1, 2020
Celebrities like Anthony Baffoe, Sarkodie and Edem shared their excitement of his return.
Ou! It’s true !!!!! Big up my brother 👊🏿👊🏿👊🏿 congrats on this one …. really respect you for this … now our local games gon b exciting… 🇬🇭🇬🇭🇬🇭🇬🇭 https://t.co/5g30DyDIyl
— Sarkodie (@sarkodie) November 1, 2020
@ASAMOAH_GYAN3 congratulations I pray this will be a stepping stone for something big in the GPL!..well done @LegonCitiesFC and good luck Capitano Asamoah Gyan 👍🏿👏🏿👌🏿✊🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿 “It always seems impossible until it’s done “🙏🏿🙏🏿 https://t.co/gZbI1vHx23
— Anthony Baffoe 🇬🇭🇬🇭🇬🇭 (@AnthonyBaffoe) November 1, 2020
Congratulations Brozay https://t.co/CGybbDoiag
— Edem Goget’em (@iamedem) November 1, 2020
The Legon Cities player will also increase stadium attendance. He is a big name in the Ghanaian football circles and this means a lot of fans will pay to watch him. Wherever his club travels to play, people will pay to watch and that will boost the finances of clubs.
However, after he left Al Ain his numbers have declined. This makes one wonder, will he be able to score goals like he is known for or the GPL defenders will stop him?
By Sakyibea Ofori|3news.com|Ghana