Former Ghana defender Edwin Gyimah has has revealed that leaving Orlando Pirates three years ago is the worst football decision in his career.
Gyimah, then 19, left the Buccaneers for Swedish side Helsingborg in 2017 after a bust-up clashing with former coach Muhsin Ertugral.
The former Ghana international returned to South Africa after just a year in Europe to feature for Bidvest Wits, ahead of joining Black Leopards in 2019.
But Gyimah, who never kicked a ball despite playing at three Africa Cup of Nations tournament, says he regrets the decision to leave the Soweto giants.
“You know in football there are so many things we soccer players need to learn,” Gyimah tells KickOff.com.
“I feel like so many players have learned those kind of lessons. Because one, our private lives play a big role in the game, people we keep around us in our private lives, the people who we take advice from, they play a big role in our career.
“So leaving Pirates… bad friends and the bad decisions from my side, because I didn’t really know the culture of South Africans… I didn’t know, even though I’ve been here since SuperSport [United].
“With the Pirates thing it’s really about something that’s outside football that I couldn’t control, that affected me to take that decision. It wasn’t about the Muhsin incident at all. It was something off the field that pushed me to take that decision.
“You know there are a lot of players who are being influenced by people outside of football. Some will say ‘you playing for Pirates but maybe if you leave Pirates you can go to Europe, you can go here’… you know there are so many things. There are so many kind of advisors that a player gets off the field.
“You know leaving Pirates was the biggest decision in my life that I could take. I regret leaving Pirates because I feel like there was so much in me that I could have offered for the team.
“The supporters loved me, everybody loved me at Pirates, there were no problems there. I feel like I could offer so much for the team, even now I think like I could offer so much.
“When I watch their game, when I watch how they play, I feel like I could still offer something for them. The supporters loved me…
“It was my own decision, nobody chased me out at Pirates. Let me be honest, leaving Pirates I regret because there are some decisions that I have made in the past that didn’t help me.
“The day I left Pirates, that’s when everything stopped in my career. That’s when everything stopped in my life.”
