WHAT IF? What if Asamoah Gyan scored that penalty?

I know you remember where you were on that faithful night Baby Jet blasted that penalty beyond our universe.

I know the despair you felt in your heart and the feeling of impending doom. What if Asamoah Gyan scored? How different would his legacy have been? How far would the Black stars have gone? Even if we were to lose against Nederlands, we would have been the first African country to have made it to the semi-finals.

Our style of football may have posed a threat to the golden generation of Orange led by a prime Sneijder and Robben, and we may have probably stood a chance.

Let’s forget the black stars for a while, let us talk about Asamoah Gyan and how different his legacy would have been. Anytime Africa’s greatest 11 are mentioned, Asamoah Gyan is always left out.

Is it because that penalty tainted his legacy to the extent everyone forgets how phenomenal he was as a target man? Asamoah Gyan is the highest-scoring African in the World Cup, a feat the great Drogba and Eto couldn’t achieve.

Asamoah Gyan is the first player to score a goal in nine consecutive tournaments. Maybe he won zero international trophies and that may make this argument very difficult to make but if he had scored that penalty no one would have cared.

He probably would have gone to a better team, had a chance at winning the Champions League, and would have probably won it. Ghanaians would have defended him with their lives and no one would have placed Abedi Pele or CK Gyamfi above him.

He would have been a god, a Ghanaian football god, a status only one man has rightfully achieved. His life would have taken a different turn and in conversations about the greatest African to ever touch a ball, his name would have been first. Now we are just left with a lingering feeling of what could have been and imaginations of how hard we would have partied that night if Asamoah Gyan had converted that penalty.

Author-Ahanta Bred