Black Stars captain Asamoah Gyan has announced his retirement from the senior national men’s soccer team.
Gyan, who made his international debut in 2003 against Somalia, appears to be uncomfortable with a decision by the technical team to give the team’s captaincy to another player for next month’s Africa Cup of Nations tournament.
“As an active footballer yet to retire, I have been in the team since 2003 and have played with some members of the technical team who were my seniors,” he said in a statement released on Monday, May 20.
“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 mentioned former captains Stephen Appiah and Richard Kingson as players in good positions to understand his concerns.
Gyan, who scored Ghana’s first world cup goal, says he has consulted his family and team and he wants to, first of all, recuse himself from June/July Cup of Nations.
“I also wish to retire from the national team permanently; not pretending my presence would not fuel the purported undermining the country seen under my captaincy.”
Gyan, popularly known as Baby Jet, expressed gratitude to past and present presidents of Ghana for the support offered him in his international playing career.
“I would continue to serve the country Ghana in other endeavours as a businessman through various investments.”
Barring any change in decision, Asamoah Gyan will miss the Cup of Nations for the first time since 2006.
He has scored in each edition for Ghana since he played in Egypt in 2006.
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana