Dubai: Al Ain striker Asamoah Gyan has reportedly “cheated death” after a jet-ski accident claimed the lives of his two friends on the Volta Lake near the Ada Estuary, in his native Ghana, on Sunday.
The 28-year-old Black Stars captain, who has just returned from national team duty with Ghana at the 2014 Fifa World Cup in Brazil, was holidaying with a group of friends at the weekend when a female friend fell off a jet ski.
Gyan’s musician friend Theophilus Tagoe, known as Castro, reportedly jumped into the water to save the unnamed woman but both Tagoe and the woman are believed to have drowned. Neither of the deceased were thought to be wearing life jackets.
From mixed reports it is unclear if Gyan, his elder brother Baffour and business manager Samuel Anim Addo, were on one of five jet skis hired by the group at the time of the accident, or playing volleyball on a nearby beach.
Tagoe was said to have been a childhood friend of Gyan, who was instrumental in nurturing the footballer’s music career.
Gyan, known by his stage name ‘Baby Jet’ and Tagoe have been credited with award-winning rap duets such as ‘African Girls’ and ‘Odo Pa’, which won the Highlife Song of the Year at the 2014 Vodafone Ghana Music Awards in May.
Both Gyan and Tagoe performed ‘Odo Pa’ at a farewell dinner hosted by President John Mahama at the Banquet Hall of the State House ahead of the Ghanaian national team’s departure for the World Cup in Brazil last month.
Ghana were eliminated in the group stages of the World Cup following a 2-1 defeats to the USA and Portugal either side of a 2-2 draw with Germany. Gyan has been the UAE league’s top scorer for three consecutive seasons since he joined from English Premier League Sunderland in 2011.
