Former Black Stars captain, Asamoah Gyan
Former Black Stars captain, Asamoah Gyan, has narrated how football contributed greatly to his wealth.
Gyan is known as one of the wealthiest Ghanaian sports personalities. He owns multiple businesses and rubs shoulders with some of the richest businessmen in Ghana.
According to him, he built the foundation of his wealth from the money he earned in football.
In an interview with YFM, he revealed that he earned GH₵100 during his days at Liberty Professionals before moving to a salary of €3,700 a month after joining the Italian side, Udinese.
"My first contract at Udinese, I was earning €3,700 a month. At Liberty, I was earning GH₵100 a month, and then I moved to €3,700. I was then loaned to Modena for two years."
He continued, "In Modena, I was earning €7,000 and something, so my salary moved up. I won't say the rest. After the loan, I came back to Udinese. That was after the 2006 World Cup. I was World Cup material, so it had gone up again."
The Black Stars' all-time top scorer noted that he started getting huge paychecks after Udinese turned down a big offer from Russia to renew his contract, stating that the contract renewal was the start of his wealth.
"The following year, I had a huge contract offer to move to Russia, but they decided they wanted me to stay for another year, so they had to change my contract. And that was when I started making money."
Asamoah Gyan played for some notable clubs in Europe after ending his five-year spell at Udinese.
He played for Stade Rennais and Sunderland, before moving to Asia in 2011. He joined Al Ain from Sunderland on an initial loan deal, before permanently signing a four-year deal that saw him earn $13 million annually.
In a previous interview with FourFourTwo, he admitted that Al Ain's transfer changed his life.
"I enjoyed playing at Al Ain. I stayed for four seasons, and it changed my life financially forever," he said.
Gyan was the highest-paid African footballer during his time in the UAE, but his status was elevated again when he joined Shanghai Shenhua in 2015. He earned £225,000 per week.
The retired footballer reportedly owns a number of businesses including real estate, hostels (an extension of his real estate), transport services, Paradise Pac Water, Baby Jet Boxing Promotion, among others.
EE/EK
