Former Sunderland striker Asamoah Gyan has revealed he ‘wanted to hit’ Luis Suarez prior to a meeting between the Black Cats and Liverpool in the Premier League. Suarez’s infamous handball off the line for Uruguay came in the quarter finals of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, against Gyan’s Ghana side.
With the score at 1-1 in the final minute of extra time, Suarez prevented a goal bound header from crossing the line, which saw him sent off. Gyan had the chance to send Ghana through from the resulting spot-kick, but his effort crashed off the crossbar meaning the game went to penalties.
Uruguay ended up winning the shootout 4-2, ending Ghana’s World Cup dream and leaving Gyan in particular heartbroken due to his role in the defeat. Gyan later went onto play against Suarez again back at club level for Sunderland and speaking on Football Ghana, revealed the level of anger he felt towards the Uruguayan, until he later realised that he would’ve done the exact same thing if he was in his position.
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He said: “I remember a game between Sunderland and Liverpool. We were playing at home on that day and all players were shaking hands.
“I wanted to hit him [Suarez] because people had said things that stuck in my mind. I was naïve at that time but when I thought about it later, I realized that I had to let it go because I would have done the same thing if I was in his position.”
