President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has called on striker Asamoah Gyan to rescind his decision to call time on his international career.
Gyan, 33, announced his retirement from the nation’s senior men’s soccer team with the pretext that the captaincy would be handed to another player at next month’s Cup of Nations, a move he said is unprecedented.
“Through such periods, there were no times substantive captains were part of a team in a tournament and had to surrender their captaincy to other players and served different capacities,” he said in his statement on Monday, May 20.
He even mentioned former captains Stephen Appiah and Richard Kingson – who are coincidentally current members of the Stars’ technical team – as witnesses of his conviction.
But after a brief meeting with the Minister of Youth and Sports, the President of the Normalisation Committee and the Chair of the Management Committee of the Black Stars on Tuesday, May 21 on the team’s preparations ahead of the tournament in Egypt, President Akufo-Addo is said to have phoned the Kayserispor striker to rescind his decision.
A post on the Facebook page of the Director of Communications at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin, noted that the president wants Asamoah Gyan to “make himself available for selection by Coach Kwasi Appiah”.
In his retirement plans, Asamoah Gyan, popularly known as Baby Jet, says he would concentrate on his investments, one of which is the Baby Jet Airlines.
He expressed thanks to “the father of the nation” and past presidents as well as his team mates since 2003, when he marked his debut, and journalists.
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana