Asamoah Gyan portrait — Wikimedia Commons (see CREDITS)
Baby Jet location_on Retired (Legon Cities, last professional club)

ASAMOAH
GYAN

Striker #3 Ghanaian flag Ghana (Black Stars) — retired 2023
forum

Age

40 yrs

Height

1.85m

Caps / Goals

109 / 51

Profile

Who is Asamoah

Asamoah Gyan is Ghana's greatest-ever striker — 109 caps, 51 international goals (Ghana's all-time record), three FIFA World Cup tournaments (2006, 2010, 2014), and the African record for World Cup goals (6). The 2010 World Cup penalty miss vs Uruguay made him the face of African football heartbreak; everything before and after made him the face of African football persistence.

Tactical DNA

Gyan was a complete centre-forward: 1.85m tall, two-footed finisher, strong in the air, technically refined for a player of his size, and capable of pressing from the front as far back as the halfway line. The defining trait was his first-touch — specifically the cushioned half-turn that let him receive the ball with his back to goal and spin in the same motion. Sunderland fans still call it 'the Gyan pivot'.

For Ghana across 13 senior years, Gyan was the Black Stars' tactical fulcrum. Every Ghanaian manager from Ratomir Dujković to Kwesi Appiah built the attacking structure around him: overlapping wing-backs providing crosses, wide playmakers giving him through-balls into the channel, and the striker himself dropping into the No. 10 pocket when Ghana needed a build-up anchor. The 2010 World Cup run (Ghana became the third African nation ever to reach a quarter-final) was his peak tactical season.

Career Journey

history
Liberty Professionals (Ghana)
28 apps 10 goals

GPL breakthrough at 16. Ten goals as a teenager put him on the European scout network radar within one season.

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Udinese (Italy)
52 apps 11 goals 4 assists €1.2m

Serie A apprenticeship. Impressed in European fixtures (UEFA Cup); loaned to Modena 2005–06 for regular senior minutes.

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Modena (Italy, loan)
18 apps 3 goals

Serie B loan — a rougher league, physical lesson that toughened the Italian phase of his development.

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Stade Rennais (France)
29 apps 9 goals €8m

Ligue 1 breakthrough season. Goals against Lyon, Marseille and PSG put him on every Premier League scout's list.

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Sunderland (England)
38 apps 11 goals £13m (then African-record Premier League fee)

Arrived from the 2010 World Cup high. Scored on his Premier League debut (vs Birmingham City). Scored the goal that kept Sunderland from relegation in 2010–11. Premier League cult figure.

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Al Ain (UAE)
125 apps 137 goals £7m (permanent)

UAE League Player of the Season 2013. UAE League Golden Boot four consecutive seasons 2012–2015. 137 goals in 125 matches — a prolific rate that rewrote Gulf-football-era records.

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Shanghai SIPG (China)
14 apps 3 goals £4m

Short Chinese Super League season. Scored on debut against Shandong Luneng; terminated the contract by mutual agreement after an injury-marred campaign.

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Al Ahli (UAE)
16 apps 4 goals

Second UAE spell. Limited minutes due to foreign-player quota rules; returned to the UAE league as player + brand-partnership arrangement.

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Kayserispor (Turkey)
28 apps 3 goals Free

Turkish Süper Lig cameo. Scored on debut but was limited by injury through most of the 2017–18 season.

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NorthEast United FC (India)
10 apps 2 goals

Indian Super League — final professional club outside Ghana. Hosted a dedicated Indian testimonial.

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Legon Cities (Ghana)
14 apps 1 goals

Final professional chapter — symbolic return to GPL football. Retired at the end of the 2020–21 season. Played a testimonial at Accra Sports Stadium in front of 35,000.

Current Season Stats

Live Data
Status
Retired
Since 2023
Career caps
109
Ghana record
Int'l goals
51
Ghana all-time record
WC goals
6
African record
World Cups
3
2006, 2010, 2014
AFCONs
8
2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019

military_techHonours

emoji_events

Ghana all-time top scorer

51 goals in 109 caps

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African record — World Cup goals

6 (2006, 2010, 2014)

star

AFCON Runner-up

3× (2010 Angola, 2015 Equatorial Guinea); AFCON 2008 hosts 3rd-place

star

UAE League Player of the Season

2012–13 (Al Ain)

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UAE League Golden Boot

2011–12, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15 (4× consecutive)

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Ghana Footballer of the Year

2010, 2013, 2014

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BBC African Footballer of the Year — nominee

2010, 2011

flagWith Ghana (Black Stars) — retired 2023

109
Caps
51
Goals
2003
Debut
World Cup 2006 AFCON 2008 (runner-up) World Cup 2010 (quarter-final) AFCON 2010 (runner-up) World Cup 2014 AFCON 2015 (runner-up)
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Beyond the Pitch

Born 22 November 1985 in Accra. Older brother of former Ghana international Baffour Gyan (Udinese, Saturn Moscow). Grew up in the Achimota district of Accra; spotted by Liberty Professionals' youth coaches at age 13. The family football lineage — Baffour was a Black Stars player before Asamoah made his senior debut — is part of the 'Gyan brothers' narrative in Ghanaian football.

Married to Gifty Gyan (since 2013); the couple have three children. Has been publicly open about the 2010 penalty miss vs Uruguay: 'I carry it with me, but I also scored the first penalty of the shootout afterwards — and that's the part I want young Ghanaians to remember.' Gyan made a Ghanaian hip-hop music career post-retirement under the stage name 'Baby Jet', releasing three albums.

Founded the Asamoah Gyan Foundation (launched 2010) — funds grassroots football infrastructure, school renovations and youth-tournament entries across Accra and Western Region. The Asamoah Gyan Youth Tournament is the largest grassroots football event in Ghana, running annually in August since 2013. Awarded the Order of the Volta (Ghana) in 2015, and inducted into the Ghana Sports Hall of Fame in 2023.

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Expert Analysis

Kofi Mensah

Kofi Mensah

Senior Writer

21 posts on Asamoah.

Asamoah Q&A

How old is Asamoah Gyan? expand_more
Asamoah Gyan was born on 22 November 1985 in Accra, Ghana, which makes him 40 years old as of April 2026. He retired from professional football in 2023.
How many goals did Asamoah Gyan score for Ghana? expand_more
51 international goals — the Black Stars all-time record. He also scored 6 goals at FIFA World Cup finals (2006, 2010, 2014), which is the African record. His first Ghana senior goal came at 17 against Somalia in a 2003 AFCON qualifier.
What happened with Asamoah Gyan's 2010 World Cup penalty? expand_more
In the 120th minute of the 2010 FIFA World Cup quarter-final vs Uruguay, Ghana were awarded a penalty after Luis Suárez handled a goal-bound shot on the line. Gyan hit the crossbar. Ghana went to penalties and lost 4–2 in the shootout — Gyan himself scored the first penalty of the shootout. Ghana became the first African nation eliminated in a World Cup quarter-final by a single moment; the Suárez handball and Gyan's miss remain the most-replayed sequence in African World Cup history.
Is Asamoah Gyan in a Hall of Fame? expand_more
Yes — Gyan was inducted into the Ghana Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. He was also named one of the 50 greatest African footballers of all time by Pan-African sports magazine JeuneAfrique in 2020. The Asamoah Gyan Football Centre in Accra — a youth facility he funded — has a dedicated wing documenting his career.
Did Asamoah Gyan play in the Premier League? expand_more
Yes — Gyan played two Premier League seasons at Sunderland (2010–2012). He scored 11 goals in 38 Premier League appearances. He was then loaned to (and later sold to) Al Ain in the UAE where he became the league's all-time top scorer. His Premier League peak remains the 2010–11 season when his goals kept Sunderland away from the relegation zone.
Why did Asamoah Gyan wear the number 3? expand_more
It's his favourite number since childhood — Gyan has worn No. 3 at all levels of football, including for Ghana and Sunderland. He has frequently said in interviews that the number represents his brother Baffour Gyan, his father and himself — the three men he credits with his football career. Unusually, it's a defender's number worn by one of Africa's greatest strikers.
What is Asamoah Gyan's net worth? expand_more
Public estimates of Asamoah Gyan's net worth in 2026 sit around US $25–40 million, reflecting his UAE-league-era salaries at Al Ain (the most lucrative phase of his career), his Sunderland Premier League contract, and endorsement deals with Nike and Ghana Telecom. Specific figures online are estimates, not disclosures.
Is Asamoah Gyan related to Baffour Gyan? expand_more
Yes — Baffour Gyan, the former Ghana international and Udinese / Saturn Moscow forward, is Asamoah's older brother. The Gyan brothers played for the Black Stars together in the mid-2000s. Baffour retired in 2015 and is now a Ghana FA executive committee member.
Was Asamoah Gyan the highest-paid African player? expand_more
At his UAE peak (2011–2015 at Al Ain), Gyan ranked among the ten highest-paid footballers in the world, with reports placing his Al Ain salary at over US $20 million per year. He has said in interviews that he was once 'the 8th highest-paid player in the world' during that spell.
Who is the richest Ghanaian footballer? expand_more
Michael Essien is most commonly cited as the richest Ghanaian footballer, with public net-worth estimates around US $35–50 million from his Chelsea and AC Milan era plus endorsements. Asamoah Gyan ranks within the top five of retired Ghanaian internationals by reported earnings, with the Al Ain years boosting his lifetime total.

Related

Country Football in Ghana arrow_forward League Ghana Premier League arrow_forward Player Mohammed Kudus arrow_forward Player Abedi Pele arrow_forward Stadium Accra Sports Stadium arrow_forward Tournament AFCON arrow_forward

Last updated 2026-04-21 · written by Kofi Mensah.