2019 AFCON was my best camp ever – Asamoah Gyan

General Captain of the Black Stars, Asamoah Gyan, says although the start of the 2019 AFCON tournament was fraught with some controversy, it was his best camp ever.

According to him, despite being disappointed in Coach Kwesi Appiah’s decision to strip him of his captaincy title and confer on him the ‘General Captain’ title, he was very happy at the tournament.

Commenting for the first time following the events prior to the 2018 AFCON, Asamoah Gyan said it was normal for him to react and resign from the national team.

“I didn’t like the decision, I reacted. People spoke to me, the president called me, there were a lot of dignitaries that spoke to me. I had to sit back and say ok it’s part of life. You have to just put yourself together… and even, that was my best camp I have ever been in the black stars. I was very very happy when I was there,” he said in an interview on Accra-based Joy FM.

“I was even the one making the camp lively. I was cracking jokes and all. Everybody was surprised.”

Wrong timing

Commenting on Coach Kwesi Appiah’s decision, Asamoah said he would not have reacted or resigned from the team if the decision to strip him of the captaincy title was announced earlier.

“I didn’t like it as a rational human being. The timing was wrong. I got upset honestly; I was very very upset… The decision should have come months earlier,” he said.

“A coach can take a decision and as a player I have to abide by it but I felt I did not do anything wrong. It has happened in some countries, it happened in England, scandal or something and because of that they’ll be like because of what you did you don’t deserve to be captain and they take it from.

“This is the situation I hadn’t done anything, I was preparing for a tournament. I was injured and I was just trying as much as possible to be fit to help my country. I was always thinking, AFCON, AFCON, AFCON. For the last month I was trying to come back and help my country and all of a sudden…as a human being I have emotions,” he added.

He explained that his decision to resign was because he wanted to “play it safe.”

“I took the decision to play it safe because the way I was upset, I might do something in the camp and people may say because they did this, you are destroying the camp.”