Ghana's Asamoah Gyan Becomes All-Time Leading African Scorer in World Cup

With his sixth career World Cup goal in Thursday's 2-1 loss to Portugal, Ghana's Asamoah Gyan passed Cameroon's Roger Milla as the tournament's all-time leading goalscorer among African players, per ESPN FC on Twitter.

Playing without star midfielders Kevin-Prince Boateng and Sulley Muntari—both of whom were suspended, according to The Sydney Morning Herald—Ghana faced long odds to advance past the group stage. The Black Stars needed both a win over Portugal and a United States loss to Germany, which would have given them a shot to advance on tiebreakers.

While Ghana ultimately fell short, Gyan found the back of the net in the 57th minute, tying the game at 1-1 with a headed goal off a beautiful cross from Kwadwo Asamoah. The goal was Gyan's second of this World Cup, following his right-footed strike in a 2-2 draw with Germany.

Previously, Gyan scored one goal as a 20-year-old at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, then added three more during the 2010 Cup in South Africa.

However, his penalty miss in the 2010 quarter-final against Uruguay was far more memorable than any of his goals. That miss came late in extra time, after Uruguay's Luis Suarez used his hand to prevent Ghana from scoring the would-have-been game-winning goal. Uruguay would later win on penalties, preventing Ghana from becoming the first African nation to reach a World Cup semi-final.

Luckily for both Gyan and his fans, the powerful forward is just 28 years old. Come Russia 2018, he may get the chance to pad his record-setting total of six World Cup goals.