I don’t regret leaving EPL for UAE – Gyan

Black Stars skipper Asamoah Gyan has said he has no regret leaving the English Premier League to play in the UAE Arabian Gulf League “because at the end of the day nobody will pay my bills”.

Gyan left English club Sunderland for Al-Ain in the United Arab Emirates in 2011 where he earned a mouth-watering $350,000-a-week.

Many football fans criticised the move to the Gulf, arguing that the all-time Ghanaian top scorer had taken the easier option of playing in a less competitive league, but Gyan said he did not regret his decision.

Speaking on Accra-based Citi FM on Wednesday, 14 June 2017, Gyan said he achieved a lot during his spell in the UAE.

Gyan said: “I took a bold decision, I won’t say I have regretted because when I moved to UAE I was the top scorer there on three consecutive occasions. I won the Asian Footballer of the Year, I won the Asian Goal King of the Year. So there were a lot of things I did in UAE.

“But people always say: ‘Why didn’t you stay in the EPL?’ And yes, they might be right, but at the end of the day I have benefited in the decision I made because at the end of the day, we’ve got a very short career and as I always say, at the end of the day, nobody will pay my bills".

"I cannot go to somebody’s shop and say: ‘I’m Asamoah Gyan, give me kenkey for free’, they will slap you. I need to pay my bills so at the end of the day I will be with my family. I need to take care of my family and if you don’t have the money, how do you take care of your family?”