New York Mayor-elect Zohran Kwame Mamdani has revealed he wept when former Black Stars player Asamoah Gyan missed the ultimate penalty that would have taken Ghana to the 2010 World Cup semi-finals.
It will be recalled that Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez, during the final moments of the game, stopped a goal-bound attempt with his hands, leading to him receiving a straight red card and Asamoah Gyan also missing the subsequent penalty awarded.
Speaking during an interview, Zohran Kwame Mamdani revealed, “I was at the Ghana Uruguay game, that is where I cried in public, yeah, Luis Suarez. That was the closest…”
On July 2, 2010, in Johannesburg, Asamoah Gyan missed a pivotal penalty which would have made Ghana the first African country to reach the semifinals of the World Cup before Morocco in 2023.
Mamdani’s revelation during the interview underscores his deep cultural affinity with Ghana despite his Ugandan roots.
In related news, Zohran Kwame Mamdani has revealed, he was named after Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
Kwame Mamdani, who is now the next mayor of New York City, the largest city in the United States of America, stated he was born in Kampala, Uganda and was given the middle name Kwame by his father.
According to him, his father named him after Kwame Nkrumah because of Ghana’s first President was a visionary leader.
Speaking at an event, Zohran Kwame Mamdani stated, “My name is Zohran Kwame Mamdani, and I know that there are many here today, and they are many watching and listening who may have seen an ad mentioning my name on TV or a commercial on the radio or a mailer in your mailbox or a video when you’re watching YouTube.
So, to quote the words of a famous New Yorker, allow me to reintroduce myself. I was born in Kampala, Uganda, East Africa. I was given my middle name, Kwame, by my father, who named me after the first prime minister of Ghana”.
He further shared a little background on himself, “Decades ago, in Uganda, we won our independence from the British in 1962. We can clap for that. And when did the United States government give the Ugandan government 23 scholarships as a gift for independence? My father won one of those scholarships.
He came to this country to study, to be an engineer at the University of Pittsburgh. Sometime into his studies, his face buried in his book, he heard the words reverberate in the corridor around him: ‘Which side are you on?’ These were words being sung by members of SNCC, a student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, recruiting students to get on a bus, go to Montgomery, Alabama. And my father got on that bus.
He marched. He was hosed down, thrown in jail, given one phone call, and he called the Ugandan ambassador to the United States and said, ‘Can you get me out of jail?’ The ambassador said, ‘What? What are you doing in jail? We sent you there to study.’ My father said, ‘You sent me here as a gift for our freedom. They are fighting for theirs. It’s one and the same”.
Kwame Mamdani was serving as the State Assembly member of New York has now been elected as the new mayor of New York City.
Meanwhile, Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s grandson, Youssef Nkrumah, has reacted to Kwame Mamdani’s revelations.
According to him, if Zohran Kwame Mamdani lives up to his name, New York will never be the same again.
Watch the video below:
“I cried in public”
— Ghana Chronicles (@_GhChronicles) November 27, 2025
New York Mayor-elect Zohran Kwame Mamdani reveals he wept when Luis Suarez stopped a Ghana goal-bound header against Uruguay at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
pic.twitter.com/9ffj5ygxUA