Dominic Adiyiah turned 34 on November 29, 2023 rebirthing conversations about how his career which had the signs of being one of the greatest went down in a manner neither the player nor his fans are proud of.

Adiyiah had the world at his feet post-2009 FIFA Youth World Cup where his goals and overall play helped Ghana become the first and so far only African country to win that trophy.

A series of bad career moves culminated in a poor and unfulfilling career which saw the football playing most of his career in the Thai league.

Gleaning from a video publication by Saddick Adams, GhanaWeb highlights four costly mistakes of Dominic Adiyiah that resulted in an unfulfilling career.

Joining AC Milan

The first and perhaps most costly mistake Adiyiah made in his career was joining Italian giants, AC Milan post the 2009 World Youth Championship.

Despite having the likes of Arsenal, Ajax, Valencia and other teams with a reputation for producing academy players on his heels, Adiyiah opted for AC Milan.

Interestingly, the player himself has admitted that he should have joined a different club.

Management issues

Saddick Adams also mentions player management as one of the things that worked against Dominic Adiyiah in his development.

In the view of Saddick Adams, Adiyiah’s career choices after the 2009 youth championship worked against him.

In his view, Adiyiah picked money over development and that was due to the bad management he suffered.

He says that the lack of a nationalistic plan for the career progression of Adiyiah and other players from that World Cup-winning squad led to the situation.

Hype and expectations

Saddick Adams reckons that the excitement and hype that heralded Dominic Adiyiah following their impressive performance in the youth champions weighed heavily on the player.

He noted that the hype added a layer of pressure on Dominic Adiyiah and the forward struggled to keep up with it.

Saddick Adams noted that without proper structures to help him navigate the career, Adiyiah succumbed to the early stage hype.

Luis Suarez handball

In the 2010 World Cup, Luiz Suarez infamously palmed away a goal-bound -header from Dominic Adiyiah in a quarter-final clash between Ghana and Uruguay.

Saddick Adams reckons that moment was a defining one for Adiyiah as it would have propelled his career to another level.




He noted that scoring the goal that sent an African country to the semi-final stage of the World Cup would have shot up Adiyiah’s career.



EK