Gyan criticises Milo’s decision to take him off during 2010 AFCON final

Ex-Ghana captain Asamoah Gyan has described his substitution in the final of the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) against Egypt as one of the weirdest in his career.

Gyan was part of a young team that made it to the final of the tournament when it was hosted by Angola 14 years ago.

The former Udinese and Sunderland forward was one of Ghana’s key players, scoring three goals in that impressive run.

The Black Stars navigated their way past a group containing the Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso after Togo had pulled out.

Gyan scored against the Ivory Coast in the group stage and also netted against hosts Angola in the quarter-finals and Nigeria in the semi-finals.

Dubbed the one-goal project, Milovan Rajevac’s side played a conservative brand of football that meant they were compact at the back and, through Gyan, had the perfect striker to hurt their opponents at the other end.

While the Black Stars never scored more than a goal in any of their matches, they fell to a 1-0 defeat to Egypt in the final following Gedo’s late strike.

Immediately after conceding, Gyan was replaced and the striker has now criticised Rajevac over the decision to take him off, especially with the team down by a goal.

“I was pained because I predicted I would score. But when [the Egyptians] scored and were celebrating, I saw the No. 3 on the substitution board. It is one of the weirdest substitutions I have seen in my entire career,” he said on Onua TV.

Meanwhile, Gyan would go on to star for Ghana at the FIFA World Cup that same year, where he again scored three goals as the Black Stars reached the quarter-finals.