Ghana's all-time leading record goal scorer, who featured for up to eleven clubs and made 109 appearances for the Black Stars, always wore shirt number three (3) for all the years of his professional career, but why? Gyan reveals that it's a powerful number.
Familiar shirt numbers have always identified strikers in football, usually shirt nine or ten but not Asamoah Gyan.
Ghana's all-time leading record goal scorer, who featured for up to eleven clubs and made 109 appearances for the Black Stars, always wore shirt number three (3) for all the years of his professional career, but why? Gyan reveals that it's a powerful number.
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"I feel it's a powerful number," Gyan told colleague Ian Byrne in a recent video chat after a tennis practice match in Accra.
"In life, if you want to lift something heavy, you count one, two and three, so the last one is three; it's a powerful number," Gyan added.
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During the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, commentators were baffled by a striker wearing shirt three.
Still, former teammate John Paintsil told the BBC then that Asamoah Gyan has always loved the number, an idea suggested initially by the elder brother and former Black Stars forward Baffour Gyan.
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"It's like a DNA; both brothers were very energetic and fighters; the number three leaves with him everywhere he goes," Paintsil noted.
According to Baffour, the number three represented the holy trinity, the Father, the Son and the holy spirit.
Hairdressing Drama
Gyan took it a step further after his 2010 World Cup heartbreak when he shaved and dyed the number into the side of his head, but in 2016 during his loan move to Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates, almost ruined everything.
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'Baby Jet' had his Mohawk trimmed after he was one of 40 players sent a warning letter for having 'unethical hair' according to the United Arab Emirates Football Association guidelines; Gyan agreed to trim the hairstyle to avoid further sanctions.
The Mohawk and the number three on his head returned in 2017 during the Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea; as Ghana lost the third-place playoff to Burkina Faso, it stayed on until he quit active football.