Former Bayern Munich defender Samuel Osei Kuffour believes legendary Ghana striker Asamoah Gyan acted inappropriately by his public outburst over the squad announced for the nation’s 2022 World Cup qualifying double-header against Nigeria.
Upon release of the 27-man roster for the upcoming games on Tuesday, Gyan took to social media to call out team officials over the snub of in-form Anderlecht midfielder Majeed Ashimeru.
He later deleted the post, despite maintaining his stance, but apologised for his choice of words in describing the player’s absence as “nonsense”.
“He [Gyan] has his personal view on certain players as a human being but put that aside and go to the coaches, they have monitored every player,” Kuffour, currently a management committee member of the Black Stars, told Kessben FM.
“How many matches has Ashimeru played and not been invited?
“Asamoah Gyan is part of Ghana, he has captained this team so my little advice is that when things like this happen, you can call one or two people. But when you put it on your page and using the word ‘nonsense’ I don’t think it’s fair.
“You can go on and say what you want to say but certain words are not appropriate to use.”
After a slow start to the season, Ashimeru has seemingly hit a purple patch of form, having started in each of Anderlecht’s last seven games.
Overall this season, he has made 32 league outings for the Belgian giants, scoring three goals and providing three assists.
“This guy Majeed Ashimeru is the best midfielder in Ghana, after Thomas Partey, PERIOD. I have kept quiet on this but this nonsense must stop. Smh,” Gyan wrote in a tweet, which he later deleted and followed up with a new post, saying: “I still insist that Ashimeru deserves to be in this current Black Stars BUT am sorry for using the word ‘Nonsense’ in my statement, so I unreservedly withdraw that word, I was carried by my emotions. Go Ghana!”
Gyan is not only Ghana’s all-time top scorer and most capped player, but also Africa’s all-time top scorer at the World Cup.
Ghana host Nigeria in Kumasi on Friday and travel away for the reverse fixture in Abuja four days later.
