There is no rift between Black Stars captain Asamoah Gyan and his deputy Andre Ayew, national team coach Kwesi Appiah has said.
Speculations are rife that Gyan and Ayew are at loggerheads over the captainship of the Black Stars. This was further fuelled on Sunday, 11 June when Ayew took a different captain’s armband from the bench instead of going for the one on Gyan’s arm when the striker was substituted in Ghana’s 2019 Afcon qualifier against Ethiopia.
But explaining the controversy surrounding the transfer of the captain’s armband, Appiah explained that Gyan’s armband was customised with his image, hence Ayew could not use it when Gyan left the pitch.
“There is nothing going on in the team, there is so much peace, there is so much unity. And discipline for me is the highest I have seen. What happened was the captain’s band has been customised with Gyan’s picture on it. So we were all aware if he was being substituted he [could] not give that to Dede… So we had to give the original band to Dede,” Appiah told Class Sports.
On his part, Gyan reiterated he had no problem with Ayew.
He explained: “Everybody has his opinion. Sometimes people see us and make up things, but we in the camp know what is going on, so I don’t think there is any issue between me and Andre. I was in the national team before he came, I have been on his side since day one and his father [Abedi Ayew] likes me so much, but we are human beings and you don’t know what people think. Sometimes you might be here but you don’t like me, it’s a normal thing. We are talking about reality, but from what I have seen, we don’t have any problem, everything is OK. We want to win games for the country, we want to win a cup.”
The Black Stars beat their Ethiopian counterparts by five goals to nil, with Gyan scoring the first and his 50th for the national team.
