Asamoah Gyan speaks on juju in football

Legendary Ghanaian striker Asamoah Gyan has all but confirmed that he has used black magic otherwise known as ‘juju’ in his career before.

Gyan is the all-time top scorer for Ghana’s senior national team, Black Stars and he’s had a very exciting career having represented the national side at multiple FIFA World Cup and the Africa Cup of Nations tournaments.

At club level, he started but played briefly in the local league with Liberty Professionals before moving abroad as a teenager to Italian club Udinese. He subsequently joined clubs in France, England, Turkey, UAE and China.

Gyan has shared an intriguing episode of his career at the juvenile level, which perhaps suggests he might have dabbled in the practice of juju.

He recounted this experience in an interview with TV3’s Juliet Bawuah.

He said “You know when we were growing up, we see things like people do things and say we do it and we’re gonna score two, we do it and we score two. So I don’t know which is which, till when we grew up and we don’t do those things (again).

“For me things that happen exists, I don’t know if I can call it juju because during the colts level, before a game, they put like lavender in the bucket with water, it has a very good smell smells nice, like a lavender and you can see some leaves in there and they’ll tell everybody to bath.

“When we wear our jersey they will tell us to bath before we enter the field, it’s a collective thing, if you don’t do it and we lose, they will say you are the cause, so that is what we do, normally I come last so I come I stir it with my hand and throw the whole water on me” he revealed.

Talks about players from this part of the world using juju have become normal.

Opinions have been widely divided on this subject with some old players confirming it exists and even using it while other have debunked such assertions.

Gyan’s claims are likely to stoke the debate further.