Ghana’s all-time leading goal scorer, Asamoah Gyan has responded to claims of being described as a lazy player by a former assistant coach.
Herve Renard, a two times Africa Cup of Nations winner in a recent interview with labelled the 34-year-old a ‘lazy player’, particularly during practice sessions.
According to the French tactician, Gyan had the potential to achieve great things in his career but laziness curtailed his success.
“The quality of Asamoah Gyan was amazing. I was always impressed with his timing of headers. He was a very good goalscorer, fantastic player, amazing player,” Renard recently told Juliet Bawuah in a live chat on Twitter.
Herve Renard
“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, Gyan hugely disagrees with the former Lille gaffer.
“I am not lazy,” the frontman, last on the books of Indian Super League side NorthEast United, said as reported by footy-Ghana.
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“I put in 70 per cent hard work and practise the basics needed at training. 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.”
Renard worked with Gyan in 2008 when the Frenchman joined Ghana’s technical team under Claude Le Roy for the Africa Cup of Nations.
Gyan ended the tournament with one goal – a penalty – as the Black Stars finished third on home soil.
Renard has since moved on from being a member of the support staff to winning the Africa Cup of Nations as head coach with Zambia and Cote d’Ivoire, in 2012 and 2015, respectively.
Gyan is Ghana’s all-time top scorer and most capped player, having scored 51 goals in 106 appearances.
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.
