Asamoah Gyan: I regret not taking penalty during 2015 AFCON final

Asamoah Gyan has revealed that abstaining from taking a penalty during the 2015 AFCON final against Ivory Coast remains his biggest regret as Black Stars captain.

The 36-year-old was the skipper of the Black Stars team that reached the final of the AFCON seven years ago, narrowly losing to the Ivory Coast on penalties.

Despite taking a two-goal lead during the penalty shootout, Ghana squandered the advantage as the Elephants won 9-8 on penalties.

At the time, Gyan had excused himself from taking penalties for the national team following his costly misses against Uruguay in the 2010 World Cup and Zambia in the 2012 AFCON.

To this end, when the 2015 AFCON final stretched into extra time, Gyan asked to be substituted before the ensuing penalty shootout.

“As captain, I’ll say it was in 2015 [AFCON] when I asked to be substituted against Ivory Coast in the final,” he said on Peace FM.

“I feel like if I was not substituted, I could’ve helped in the penalty shootout. But due to some things that were going on, I felt I needed to give the chance to another player.

“This was because I had excused myself from taking penalties. But there were a lot of things going on which led to me asking to be substituted. So I say that was one of my biggest regrets as a captain.”

Gyan hasn’t played for the Black Stars since the 2019 AFCON, although the striker insists he is not yet retired from football.