Ghana’s captain, Asamoah Gyan says he will resume penalty duties at the upcoming AFCON 2013 tournament in South Africa should the Black Stars’ game travel to spot kicks to decide the outcome of the games during the kick-out stages or the final.
The Al Ain striker was however quick to state emphatically that he would not avail himself to take a penalty for Ghana during the normal course of the game. Gyan says his decision to display his respects for his late mother, who told him not to take penalties for the Black Stars anymore.
He made this decision when he returned from his ‘temporary’ retirement to the senior national team.
The Ghana captain is on record of squandering key penalties especially at the 2012 World Cup which denied Ghana a berth at the last four of the Mundial.
But speaking with Angel FM from Ghana’s Dubai training base, Gyan disclosed that his late Mum sternly cautioned him not to take spot kicks for Ghana as a result of the furor surrounding the last two penalty kicks he missed during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa as well as last year’s Nations Cup in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
Gyan explained that when the game travels to the spot kicks “then I wouldn’t have any option but to take it when it gets to my turn.”
According to him, if he has his own way he would not take any penalty for Ghana, “but if the game travels to penalties shoot outs then I wouldn’t shirk my responsibilities.”
