Despite taking a fantastic 2-0 lead in their penalty shootout in the Africa Cup of Nations Final on Feb 8th against Ivory Coast, the Black Stars of Ghana crashed out 9-8 to extend the torturous 33-year spell they had gone without an AFCON trophy.
In a rather shocking move, the Ghanaian tactical bench chose to substitute the country’s leading scorer and team captain Asamoah Gyan for Agyemang-Badu right before the shootout started. This move, which was definitely a ploy to stop Gyan from taking the penalties, surprised everyone including the striker himself.
When quizzed by the press about the incident, Gyan admitted that he himself could not explain it.
“I cannot explain that,” Gyan said.
“The coach made a decision and we have to respect that.”
In a separate post-AFCON press conference, Gyan was asked if he had any hard feelings towards Naby Yattara, the Guinea’s shot stopper whose tackle nearly ended the striker’s AFCON 2015 and football career.
"I am appealing to CAF to punish that guy because you can't come from your club and hurt somebody in Africa and go scot-free," the former Sunderland man told SuperSport.
"It doesn't speak well of African football otherwise anybody can just come to Africa to hurt someone and go back just like that.”
"It was a very dangerous and wicked tackle which could have ended my career, clearly the guy came here just to hurt me and he must not be allowed to go free because that should not be part of football. I cannot forgive him."
Despite losing AFCON 2015 in a year many people felt Ghana could clinch the accolade, Ghana was given a consolation prize in the form of individual player awards, all of which went the Black Stars’ way. Kwesi Appiah, Andre Ayew, and Christian Atsu were all awarded in various categories.
