Ghana legend Asamoah Gyan has finally revealed what happened between him and Stephen Appiah after missing a last-gasp penalty against Uruguay at the 2010 FIFA World Cup quarter-final.
Gyan’s miss denied Ghana a semifinal berth at the FIFA Mundial after Luis Suarez handball incident which could have made Ghana the first African country to reach the semi-final of the tournament in history.
Suárez prevented a goal-bound header from Dominic Adiyiah in the final minute of extra time at the Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg and was shown a red card as a result.
“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,” Gyan told Peace FM.
“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 negative 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.
He added, “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 hit the top of the crossbar as Ghana eventually loss 4-2 on penalty shoot-outs.
