Ex-Ghana captain Asamoah Gyan has disclosed that his first salary as a professional footballer for Ghana Premier League side Liberty Professionals was GHc100.
Gyan joined the Dansoman-based side straight from excelling at the colts level and became one of the shining lights in the Ghanaian topflight.
After just a year, though, he secured a dream move to the Italian club Udinese, where he spent the next five years of his career.
Gyan went on to play for Stade Rennes, Sunderland, Al Ain, Shanghai SIPG, Kayserispor, NorthEast United and Legon Cities before hanging his boots.
Discussing his first professional contract, however, the 38-year-old said his transfer fee when he joined Liberty was GHc500, while his salary was only GHc100.
“I was signed for GHc500 by Liberty. That was my signing fee, five million old currency. From [playing at] colts, then Liberty signed me for GHc500. But I was given GHc250 out of it, so I always tell them they owe me now,” Gyan said on YFM Ghana.
“My first contract at Udinese, I was earning €3,700 a month. At Liberty, I was earning GHc100 a month and then I moved to €3,700. I was then loaned to Modena for two years.”
He added: “In Modena, I was earning €7,000 and something, so my salary moved up. I won’t say the rest. After the loan, I came back to Udinese. That was after the 2006 World Cup. I was a World Cup material, so it had gone up again.
“The following year I had a huge contract to move to Russia but they decided they wanted me to stay for another year, so they had to change my contract. And that was when I started making money.”
Gyan is Ghana’s all-time top scorer with 51 goals and also the country’s second-most-capped player with 109 appearances.
source: Pulse Ghana
