From £227k a week to £597 in the bank: Asamoah Gyan's dramatic financial collapse

Asamoah Gyan, the Ghana striker who became a World Cup icon and one of football’s top ten earners, revealed in 2018 that his bank balance had fallen to just £597 — a collapse that stripped away a fortune built across two decades at the highest level of the game.

Gyan, now 40, rose from Ghanaian football to Udinese, Rennes and Sunderland before a move to Chinese club Shanghai SIPG made him the eighth-best-paid player in the world, reportedly earning £227,000 per week. At Sunderland he had been a record signing, netting 11 goals in 37 appearances and memorably scoring a stoppage-time equaliser against rivals Newcastle.

The wealth, however, did not last. After going unpaid for several months, Gyan gave an interview to Ghanaian media in which he laid bare the scale of his financial ruin. “My front and back, up and down is that money you see there,” he said of the three-figure sum remaining in his account. He had previously spent lavishly — including on a golden Rolls Royce — but the money had run out with startling speed.

His troubles were compounded by a bitter annulment battle with his ex-wife, a dispute that involved accusations of infidelity and questions over paternity. DNA testing ultimately confirmed Gyan as the biological father of his three children, but a court ordered him to surrender significant assets to his former wife: a property in the UK, a four-bedroom house in Ghana, a petrol station and two vehicles.

Gyan is perhaps best remembered internationally for his penalty miss against Uruguay in the 2010 World Cup quarter-final — a moment that denied Ghana a place in the semi-finals and has followed him ever since. He represented the Black Stars at both the 2006 and 2010 tournaments.

Since the financial low point, Gyan has worked to rebuild. According to a 2024 report by Marca, he moved into a mansion in the Ghanaian capital Accra and diversified into boxing promotion, philanthropy, and food and drink entrepreneurship. He also founded an airline, Baby Jet, which received a licence from the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority, though the venture folded in 2019 without completing a single commercial flight.

Gyan has also moved into politics in Ghana, adding yet another chapter to a post-football life that has been as turbulent as his playing career was decorated.