Asamoah Gyan is expressing gratitude to national team coach, football association chiefs and the entire country for the opportunity to lead the Black Stars into battle. In the absence of captain John Mensah and assistant Michael Essien, UAE based Gyan was handed the armband for the final round Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Malawi.

And Gyan was spot on, leading from front as if he has been captaining Ghana all his life. Pep talks to teammates, encouraging them in the face of rugged Malawi frustrations, facing up to the referee anytime a teammate is rudely fouled and topping it up with an impressive performance, even forcing a tip over the bar save from the Malawi goalkeeper, Gyan was truly a leader for the Black Stars.

“It’s a privilege. This is the first time I’m captaining my country and I must say I’m very grateful for the opportunity. It’s a privilege and I appreciate the support of my teammates, the coach and everyone,” the stand-in captain said post match. Gyan continued: “I’m also happy that we won today which gives us a very good chance because I know we have quality players playing regularly at their clubs. I can assure Ghanaians that we will go there to qualify.”

The Al Ain striker added: “I think it’s important that Ghanaians should give us moral support. We had not played Malawi before but now we have and know what they are capable of so we’ll go there with the perfect plan for them.” Gyan continued: “It’s also important to realize that we have won by what should be a good result even if we could not score as many as we wanted. They now have an even bigger task to beat us by three goals and prevent us from scoring and I know we have top players to punish them.”

Asamoah Gyan and his Black Stars teammates have meanwhile left Accra Monday morning for Monrovia to play Liberia in a friendly international marking that country’s independence anniversary on Tuesday.