How Prince Tagoe helped Asamoah Gyan find form for 2010 World Cup

Asamoah Gyan has given former Black Stars teammate Prince Tagoe his flowers for the role he played as Ghana qualified and made history at the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Tagoe starred for the Black Stars during the qualifiers as Gyan struggled with fitness, missing most of the qualifying run.

The former Hearts of Oak striker easily walked into the team and immediately formed a strong partnership with Mathew Amoah, Gyan's main strike partner.

This allowed the then-unfit Gyan to fully recover and rediscover form at the right time for the World Cup in South Africa.

Both players made Milovan Rajevac's team for the World Cup, with Tagoe playing from the flanks while Gyan returned to his main position.

"During the qualifiers, I will say shoutout to Prince Tagoe. Because after AFCON 2010, I was having some muscle problems, so there were games that I could have played for Ghana, but because they knew I was very, very tired, they had to exclude me," he told Oti Adjei.

"Prince Tagoe was doing very, very well for Hearts of Oak, and they invited him to the national team, and instantly, he was scoring. Tagoe was scoring in the qualifiers.

"I will say in 2010, during the qualifiers to the World Cup, I will say I was not that involved, even though I played some games and scored a couple of goals. I would not say I was instrumental because of my problems, so the coach wanted to rest me. The team didn't want to take that risk.

"Prince stood up, and he delivered till we qualified for the World Cup."

Gyan went on to score three goals at the 2010 World Cup as Ghana became the third African country to reach the quarter-finals of the tournament.