‘This club will always have a place in my heart’: Asamoah Gyan leaves Al Ain for Shanghai SIPG

Asamoah Gyan has scored 95 goals in 83 league matches since joining Al Ain four years ago. Christopher Pike / The National

Asamoah Gyan has bid an emotional farewell to Al Ain in anticipation of his record-breaking transfer to Shanghai SIPG, the Chinese Super League side.

The Ghanaian striker, one of the most prolific goalscorers in the history of the UAE top flight, said his tearful goodbyes to board members and staff at the Arabian Gulf League champions at the Khalifa International Stadium on Tuesday night.

He then departed the club immediately to fly to China, where he is expected to finalise a reported €20 million (Dh81m) move.

The deal for Gyan himself, believed to be a three-year contract, is said to be worth close to €250,000 per week. The forward, who has scored 95 goals in 83 league matches since joining Al Ain four years ago, signed an extension to his current contract last summer that runs until 2018.

MORE ARABIAN GULF LEAGUE NEWS

However, it appears the sheer size of the proposal from Shanghai for both the Garden City club and Gyan, 29, convinced both parties that a move was the best option. Gyan will undergo a medical in Shanghai on Wednesday.

“I am lost for words,” he said.

“This club will always have a special place in my heart no matter what happens in future.”

Last season was Gyan’s least productive for Al Ain, with the Ghana World Cup star dogged by a persistent quadriceps problem. He played only 17 times in the league — five as a substitute — but still managed to score 13 times.

Gyan arrived at Al Ain from England's Sunderland in 2011, initially on loan, for a fee of £6m (Dh34.3m). A similar amount was paid to make the move permanent at the conclusion of his initial season, in which he finished the league's top scorer. Gyan found the net 22 times to help Al Ain secure a first league championship in eight years. Intriguingly, The National understands the Premier League club are entitled to a portion of any sell-on fee, which could reach up to 20 per cent.

Gyan’s form continued into his second and third seasons, in which he twice more collected the league’s Golden Boot. In four years with Al Ain, he fired the club to three league titles and one President’s Cup crown. Last year, he finished top scorer in the Asian Champions League, finding the net 12 times as Al Ain advanced to the semi-finals.

Such a record convinced Shanghai to make their move. The club, currently second in the Chinese Super League, are coached by Sven-Goran Eriksson, the former England manager who spent five months in 2013 as technical director at Dubai’s Al Nasr.

Speaking earlier at a press conference ahead of Shanghai’s league match with Guangzhou R&F, Eriksson refused to be drawn on the Gyan transfer.

“I will not comment on Gyan today because my focus is on the game and this press conference is not the appropriate place to discuss it,” he said. “I need all my 20 players focused on the match.”

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @NatSportUAE