Poll: Is Asamoah Gyan the ultimate football mercenary?
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At £227,000 a week, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Lionel Messi had switched clubs, but no that is the fee Asamoah Gyan is set to earn in his latest transfer.
The Ghanaian has swapped the middle east for China, as he is set to join Sven-Goran Erikkson at Shanghai SIPG on a two-year deal.
This isn’t the first questionable move for the former Sunderland man, where something other than the football may have led him to jump ship.
So with that in mind, and Gyan as the first candidate, we want to know where the 29-year-old sits amongst football’s biggest mercenaries.
Asamoah Gyan
“I thank God for this special day, to my family, former playmates at Al Ain and to my fans”. That was how Gyan described his near-£1m a month switch the Chinese outfit.
Many will suggest that the latest move furthers any earlier opinions that Gyan sacrificed his football career at the top level for money, having been reportedly earning £115,000-a-week in Qatar after leaving the Premier League at the age of 25.
Chris Samba
Having established himself in the heart of the Blackburn Rovers’ defence, a bright career in England looked on the cards for Samba.
However when the money of Anzhi Makhachkala came calling, the Congo international found it hard to resist. After suffering racist abuse in Russia, Samba rightly wanted out but did chose the over-paying QPR outfit as his next stop. Six months later he was back at Anzhi on £100,000-a-week again.
Emmanuel Adebayor
OK, in recent years Adebayor has been keen to stay at Tottenham Hotspur in an attempt to shake off the ‘Mercenary’ tag that has besieged itself upon him.
He nearly marked his installation as Togo captain with the team threatening to pull out of the African Cup of Nations if his bonus demands were not met, but it is perhaps Arsenal fans that feel aggrieved with the striker more than anyone for his antics before and after he left the north London club.
Winston Bogarde
Bogarde’s time at Chelsea saw him start just four games, in four years and earn around £8m. He was relegated to the reserve team when the Blues couldn’t find a buyer for the defender, with him reportedly commuting from Amsterdam every day for training.
At least he was aware of his status: “The world is about money, so when you are offered those millions you take them. I may be one of the worst buys in the history of the Premiership, but I don’t care”, he said.
Luis Figo
While he wasn’t jumping clubs just for the money, you would have thought a man of Figo’s calibre would have more respect for Barcelona than to leave them for arch rivals Real Madrid.
It’s fair to say that Barca fans welcomed him back in style after his £40m (£37m?) switch, gifts such as a pig’s head, a bottle of Johnny Walker and even some loose change were afforded to the Portuguese winger every time he went over to take a corner at the Nou Camp.
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