Today is the 39th birthday of Ghana’s top scorer of all time, Asamoah Gyan.
Gyan was born on November 22, 1985, into a family of educators and businessmen. He had always dreamed of playing football and helping Ghana win its first World Cup. While still a child growing up in the Accra suburbs, he informed his teacher about a dream that his classmates had made fun of in class.
His nickname, Baby Jet, began his career in 2003 with Liberty Professionals of the Ghanaian Premier League, scoring ten goals in sixteen games.
After that, he played for Serie A team Udinese for three seasons, scoring eleven goals in 39 league games and fifteen goals in 53 games while on loan at Modena for two of those seasons.
After joining Ligue 1 team Rennes in 2008, Gyan spent two seasons there, scoring 14 goals in 48 league games.
When Gyan joined Sunderland in 2010, he smashed the club’s transfer record. Over the course of two seasons, he scored 10 goals in thirty-four Premier League games.
After going on loan to Al Ain in 2011, Gyan scored 24 goals in 27 games, making him the top goal scorer in the UAE Pro-League.
The next season, he signed a permanent contract with Al Ain, where he scored an amazing 28 goals in 32 games, helping the team win the UAE Pro-League and reclaiming his position as the league’s top scorer.
During the 2013–14 season, Gyan scored 44 goals in 40 appearances for Al Ain. From 2016 until 2019, he will play for NorthEast United FC, Shabab Al Ahli Club, Shanghai Port, and Kayseri Spor Kulübü. After that, he went back home to play in the Ghana Premier League for Legon Cities before he formally retired on June 20, 2023.
With 51 goals, Gyan is the all-time leading scorer for the Ghanaian national team. He played for Ghana in three World Cups: Brazil in 2014, South Africa in 2010, and Germany in 2006.
At 17 years, 362 days, Baby Jet is the Black Stars’ youngest goal scorer. In 2006, he scored Ghana’s first World Cup goal in the team’s 2-0 victory over the Czech Republic.
With six goals in all three of the tournaments he attended, he is also Africa’s top scorer at the World Cup.
Gyan also made history by being the first player to score in nine major international competitions. He accomplished this by scoring in every AFCON from 2008 to 2017 and the World Cups in 2006, 2010, and 2014.
