AFCON 2019: ‘GOAT’ Gyan joins beard gang

Asamoah Gyan may have lost the Ghana skipper’s armband, but he has picked up something else — and I am not talking about the chieftaincy title recently awarded him.

See, we have all been too obsessed with the captaincy Gyan has had to pass on to erstwhile deputy Andre Ayew and the controversy surrounding that switch to notice the Kayserispor forward’s new acquisition: a flourishing beard.

The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations may be Gyan’s 10th consecutive — and, surely, final — tournament for the Black Stars, but it is the first at which he would be sporting a significant amount of facial hair.

The inspiration?

Well, that is not very obvious — or maybe it is, depending on which end of the telescope you are looking through.

Maybe it is just a fresh look the usually clean-shaven Gyan seeks, or perhaps a simple case of the most senior — and most successful, arguably — member of the Ghana squad reminding everyone of that fact. Alternatively, it could be a grooming tip borrowed from some of the world’s best players, notably Lionel Messi (who has gone about his sorcery bearded in recent years) and Cristiano Ronaldo (who grew a bit of fuzz for the last FIFA World Cup).

Whether or not it is Ronaldo’s goatee-inspired goalscoring heroics at Russia 2018 that Gyan seeks to tap from — going into a competition that would almost certainly prove the swansong of his international career — if that fetches a first AFCON title for Ghana in nearly four decades, well, who would fuss over a goatee gained or an armband lost?