Asamoah Gyan, Ghana’s 2010 FIFA World Cup hero, has admitted that he nearly hit Luis Suarez for depriving the Black Stars a place in the Mundial’s semi-finals.
After handling Dominic Adiyah’s stoppage-time goal scoring header at the Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg, Luis Suarez became Africa’s football adversary.
Suarez virtually made a goalkeeper-worthy save on the line and received a straight red card as a consequence.
Asamoah Gyan revealed after the World Cup that he wanted to hit Suarez when playing for Sunderland against Liverpool because of how he handled the situation.
“To be honest, I wanted to punch him during my days at Sunderland. We (Sunderland) were playing a home game against Liverpool, so they came to exchange handshakes with us. To be frank, when he came close to me, I wanted to hit him because of the things people said to me but I decided to keep my cool,” he said.
Asked about what he will do to the Uruguay star whenever he meets him again, he said, “Suarez, I will not do anything to him because he did that to save his country. We had the opportunity and blew it away. He had to do something to keep his country in the tournament. I always say if I was in his shoes, I would have done the same to save Ghana. Sometimes people feel is a cheat but he had to do everything to save his country, he sacrificed for his country,” he said in an interview on an Accra-based FM station.
After the Luis Suarez incident, the Black Stars were handed a penalty, but Asamoah Gyan failed to convert it, therefore ending Ghana’s participation in penalty shootouts.
