Legendary striker, Asamoah Gyan has hit back at former Black Stars assistant coach Herve Renard’s perception of him as lazy in training.
The two times African Cup of Nations (Afcon) winner worked under veteran coach, Claude Le Roy as the Black Stars’ physical trainer during the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations.
The 51-year-old, in an interview with TV3’s Juliet Bawuah, revealed that Asamoah Gyan had qualities that should have seen him achieve better than he had in his illustrious career but expressed reservations about the striker’s attitude to training saying:
“The quality of Asamoah Gyan was amazing. I was always impressed with his timing of headers. He was a very good goalscorer, fantastic player, and amazing player.
“But I have something to tell him. He was supposed to have a better career but he was lazy.
“In training, he was lazy. He only likes the games. But he was the most important player but I know him and he didn’t like the training, he only likes the competition, the games.”
However, the former Sunderland and Shanghai SIPG forward disagrees with the perception, arguing that there was more to delivering consistently than just ‘killing’ himself at training.
“I am not lazy. I put in 70% hard work and practice the basics needed at training,” Gyan said as quoted by Footy-ghana.com.
“And, then, I give everything I have in games.
“I work hard in games; the final output is what matters, and not during training. Consistency is what matters.”
Asamoah Gyan, is Ghana’s all-time leading marksman with 51 goals and Africa top-scorer having netted six times at the Fifa World Cup.
He is also the highest-scoring African at the World Cup with six strikes to his name. In 2010, he was named BBC African Footballer of the Year.
At Afcon, the forward is the second-highest scoring Ghanaian at the tournament with eight goals.
At club level, Gyan began his career with local side Liberty Professional before moving to Italian fold Udinese in 2003.
After a loan stint at Modena, the Accra-born joined French fold Rennes, from where he joined English side, Sunderland, in 2010.
Ten league goals in his first season of English football earned him a financially lucrative loan move to Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates.
Source: Mybrytfmonline/Sammy Heywood Okine
