Former Black Stars head coach, James Kwesi Appiah has thrown more light on why he decided to strip off Asamoah Gyan's captaincy from him ahead of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.
Gyan, had captained the senior national team for almost seven years after being named as the substantive captain by the same Kwesi Appiah in 2013.
However, prior to the 2019 AFCON, the captaincy was handed over to Andre Ayew whiles he was asked to be made Ghana's General captain- a decision which didn't go down well with him and painfully announced his retirement from the national team but rescinded his decision subsequently.
Highlighting on why he took that decision almost five years ago, the current Sudan head coach stated that, Gyan had suffered a huge dip in performance and didn't have the strength like he use to, reason he took off the band from him.
Also, he revealed the huge admiration he's always had for the elite forward and knew he could still help the team with the experience he's gathered and that's why he still included him in the squad that travelled to Egypt for the tournament.
“I knew that his performance cannot go to the level I wanted because modern football is not about name and his strength was not that high compared to years back."
“In actual fact that was the main reason. Looking at the games he had played and personally, I don’t believe I will be the captain and I will be on the bench. The captain should be on the pitch to control things,” Coach Kwesi Appiah said.
"The reason why I took Gyan to the competition was because Gyan had helped the nation for a period of time and I said if you are not injured no matter what I will take you to the tournament and I want you to finish on that note,” Kwesi Appiah shared.
Asamoah Gyan won firm himself 109 caps and is still Ghana's all time top scorer with 51 goals.
