Andre Ayew will be named new captain of the Black Stars by Kwesi Appiah when the provisional AFCON squad is named.

He takes over from the now retired Asamoah Gyan, who announced his decision to leave international football on Monday evening.

Joy Sports understands that Appiah had planned this move for some months.

This decision answers the question hanging since Gyan opted to leave the side, as he had hinted in his statement.

"If the decision of the coach is to give captaincy of the tournament to another player while I am named in the team (squad) of the tournament, I wish to recuse myself from the tournament.”

"I also wish to retire from the national team permanently."

Ayew made his debut as a teenager in 2008 under Claude LeRoy and has become an influential member of the team, particularly after captaining Ghana to win the U-20 World Cup in 2009.

A joint-top Ghana scorer in the AFCON with eight goals - together with Gyan - Ayew will hope to be the first captain to win a trophy for the national side since it was last done in 1982.