The living legend and Ghana’s all-time leading top scorer Asamoah Gyan has opened up on his conversation with Stephen Appiah after missing a last-minute penalty against the La Celeste(The Blue Sky) of Uruguay in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
That game produced one of the most dramatic endings in World Cup history, with much controversy surrounding one of the turning points, with a then 23-year-old Suarez at the center of proceedings.
Ghana were on the verge of becoming the first African team to reach the semifinals of the World Cup, but an incident involving Suarez prevented them from achieving that objective.
After that fascinating 90 minutes of action, the game was extended into an extra time after a 1-1 draw.
The game almost heading to penalties, Luis Suarez prevented Dominic Adiyah’s header from entering the net with his arms and Ghana had a penalty to make history.
However, Baby Jet failed to convert the penalty to cement the victory for the Africans after his kick was denied by the wood-work.
In a picture, Stephen Appiah appeared to be furiously blaming Gyan after he squandered the opportunity.
But in an interview with Peace FM, the all time leading top scorer of the Black Stars disclosed that Appiah advised him not to ever think to abstain from taking the post-match penalty shootout.
“At the time he was motivating me and that was after the penalty. I was very worried going into the post-match penalty shootout but he came and told me that he knows what I can do. I was the best penalty taker and it was a mistake. I shouldn’t be thinking that I won’t go and play the penalty. He was behind the reason why I took some of the spot-kicks although I wanted not to play but his motivational words helped me to get that vim to take the penalty.
“He was telling me not to think that I won’t play but that caption (that picture) came with a lot of opinions. In Ghana they like spreading negatives and everyone has something to say when anything happens. They were saying he warned me not to play and they even said Appiah stated ”have you seen what you’ve done” after the penalty.
“In that year, they used to appoint a penalty taker before every game and I was the first penalty taker. He was going to take the ball for me and he was not going to play. That was what happened. I always say when anything happens everyone has something to say and I don’t dispute that so I have to just take it.” Gyan told Chairman General Kwame Sefa Kayi.
The former Sunderland skipper is the all time leading top scorer of the Black Stars with 51 goals and the only African player with 6 goals at the FIFA World Cup.
