Asamoah Gyan, the captain of Ghana’s senior national football team, the Black Stars, has announced his retirement from football and also recused himself from the 209 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).

In a statement posted to his official Twitter page, Asamoah Gyan said: “I wish to recuse myself from the tournament”, adding: “I also wish to retire from the national team permanently; not pretending my presence would not fuel the purported undermining the country has seen under my captaincy.”

Explaining his reason for retiring from the team, Gyan said: “Upon consultations with my family and team, and as an active footballer and captain of the national team, if the decision of the coach is to give captaincy of the tournament to another player while I am named in the team of the tournament, I wish to recuse myself from the 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.

“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 in different capacities. Mr. Richard Kingson and Stephen Appiah would be in the best position to understand this.”


Source: Ghana/ClassFMonline.com/91.3FM