Gyan breaks £100k Sunderland charity promise

Asamoah Gyan has reneged on his agreement to pay a substantial donation to Sunderland's Foundation charity despite earning more than £10million tax free in the last year.


The former African footballer of the year, and Sunderland’s record signing, was allowed to join UAE club Al-Ain in a £200,000-a-week tax-free deal at the beginning of last season.


As part of the lucrative move, Gyan agreed to make a sizeable donation to the club’s own community scheme which has ploughed millions into the region through education and football programmes for the last nine years.


Sportsmail has learnt that Gyan, whose total earnings in the last year will top £10.4million, has failed to pay the donation, believed to be in the region of £100,000.


A club spokesperson confirmed: 'The donation has not been received to date; however we are hopeful that this is merely an oversight on the part of Asamoah and his representatives.


'The Foundation does a tremendous amount of work with young people in the North East region and a donation of this kind will help to fund some fantastic programmes and support youngsters from some of the most vulnerable areas of society.'


There were few tears at the Stadium of Light when the disruptive Gyan swiftly negotiated his exit a year ago. But his decision to quit the Wearside club, and the Barclays Premier League, still stunned then chairman Niall Quinn and manager Steve Bruce.


Quinn said in a club statement: 'Steve Bruce, our owner and the board all found the football decision that Asamoah wished to make baffling but I, as chairman, with everyone’s full support, decided that this deal was in the best interests of our football club.'


The former chairman, still a Foundation patron, also emphasized that part of that deal included the donation from Gyan to the club’s own foundation charity.


The Ghana international has now joined Al-Ain permanently after scoring 22 goals in 18 games last season. The whole transfer eventually clawing back most of the £13million Sunderland paid for his 10 goals in 34 appearances.


Martin O’Neill’s number one priority this summer is to find a prolific goal scoring replacement for Gyan, who, like Darren Bent, was bought and sold by Bruce.