Ghana’s leading all-time scorer, Asamoah Gyan is celebrating his 39th birthday today.
Born on November 22, 1985, to an educationist and businessman, Gyan had always wanted to be a footballer to lead Ghana to its first World Cup. A dream his classmates once laughed at when he told his teacher in class while still a kid growing up in the suburbs of Accra.
Baby Jet, as he came to be known, started his career in 2003 with Ghanaian Premier League team Liberty Professionals, where he scored ten goals in sixteen games.
He then spent three seasons with Serie A club Udinese, where he scored eleven goals in 39 league games and fifteen goals in 53 league games during two seasons of loan at Modena.
Gyan joined Ligue 1 team Rennes in 2008 and scored 14 goals in 48 league games over the course of two seasons.
Gyan broke the club's transfer record when he joined Sunderland in 2010, and during the course of two seasons, he scored 10 goals in thirty-four Premier League games.
Gyan became the leading goal scorer in the UAE Pro-League in 2011 after going on loan to Al Ain, where he scored 24 goals in 27 games.
He joined Al Ain permanently the next season and scored an incredible 28 goals in 32 games, helping Al Ain win the UAE Pro-League and once again becoming the league's top scorer.
Gyan scored 44 goals in 40 games for Al Ain during the 2013–14 campaign. He will then on to play for Shanghai Port, Shabab Al Ahli Club, Kayseri Spor Kulübü, and NorthEast United FC, between 2016 and 2019. He then returned home to play for Legon Cities in the Ghana Premier League before officially retiring on June 20, 2023.
Gyan is the Ghanaian national team's all-time top scorer with 51 goals. He represented Ghana at three World Cups – Germany 2006, South Africa 2010, and Brazil 2014.
Baby Jet is the youngest goal scorer at 17 years, 362 days, for the Black Stars and scored Ghana’s first-ever World Cup in the 2-0 win over Czech Republic in 2006.
He is also Africa’s highest goalscorer at the World Cup with six goals, scoring in all three tournaments he went to.
Additionally, Gyan became the first player to score in nine major international tournaments. He attained this feat by scoring in the 2006, 2010, and 2014 World Cups, and netting in each AFCON between 2008 to 2017.