Ghana’s all-time top scorer, Asamoah Gyan has hit back at former Black Stars assistant coach Herve Renard’s perception of him as lazy in training.
Now the head coach of the Saudi Arabia national team, Renard worked under Claude Le Roy as the Black Stars’ physical trainer during the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations.
The 51-year-old, in an interview with TV3’s Juliet Bawuah, touted Gyan had qualities that should have seen him achieve better than he had in his illustrious career but expressed reservations about the striker’s attitude to training saying:
“The quality of Asamoah Gyan was amazing. I was always impressed with his timing of headers. He was a very good goalscorer, fantastic player, amazing player.
“But I have something to tell him. He was supposed to have a better career but he was lazy.
“In training, he was lazy. He only likes the games. But he was the most important player but I know him and he didn’t like the training, he only likes the competition, the games.”
But Gyan disagrees with the perception, arguing that there was more to delivering consistently than just ‘killing’ himself at training.
The former Sunderland hitman is quoted by a Footy-Ghana.com source as saying:
“I am not lazy. I put in 70% hard work and practice the basics needed at training. And, then, I give everything I have in games.
“I work hard in games; the final output is what matters, and not during training. Consistency is what matters.”
Footy-Ghana.com gathers Herve Renard’s opinion of Gyan’s attitude to training could be informed by an incident that occurred in the Stars camp. The striker, then with, had spoken up against the excessive nature of the physical training the Frenchman was putting the team through at training, our source revealed.
Asamoah Gyan, is Ghana’s all-time leading marksman with 51 goals and Africa top-scorer having netted six times at the Fifa World Cup.