Gyan's retirement: President Nana Addo backs coach Kwasi Appiah

Ghanaweb.com can confirm that President Nana Akufo-Addo has decided to back Black Stars coach, James Kwasi Appiah in his decision to take the national team's captaincy from Asamoah Gyan and hand it to another player.

According to our deep-throat sources, the President in a telephone conversation was satisfied with the explanation that was given to him by James Kwasi Appiah and assured him (Kwasi Appiah) that he had the full backing of the Presidency and by extension the government of Ghana.

We are told that the President was of the opinion that the head coach reserves the right to make such decisions no matter how controversial.

President Akufo-Addo was on Tuesday, May 21 forced to reach out to the technical team of the Black Stars, the Management Committee, and the Normalization Committee of the Ghana Football Association as well as the Asamoah Gyan’s camp to get an understanding of the circumstances that led to the Gyan’s retirement from the national team.

Gyan quit the team yesterday over a decision to strip him of the captain’s armband for AFCON 2019.

Gyan released a statement late Monday evening recusing himself from AFCON 2019 over what he claimed was a decision by the head coach to hand the captaincy to another player for the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.

Gyan, 34, said he could not ‘pretend to be happy’ with the decision.

Kwesi Appiah is expected to name a provisional 30-man squad for his 3-week training tour of the Dubai, which will be cut down to 23 before the tournament kicks off on June 21.

Ghana are housed in Group F along with Cameroon, Guinea Bissau and Benin.