A little over a year ago, Andre Ayew earned his debut call up into the senior national team when former Ghana coach, Claude Le Roy named him in his team for a friendly against Senegal.
The youngster, son of former Black Stars captain Abedi Ayew, went on to force his way into the team, claiming a place in Ghana’s squad for the 2008 African Cup of Nations.
During the CAN, Andre Ayew’s international career was questioned. Various people claimed he was a hot prospect, some argued that he was not ready for the big stage and he was also written off entirely by others.
But for a player, who has been enjoying Champions League football with French side, Olympique Marseille before his loan move to Lorient this season, there might be something about his game that had a couple of English sides – Arsenal and Newcastle - queuing for his signature.
Andre, yet to turn 19, certainly hasn’t reached the level of his dad but has shown promise that he is capable of getting there.
“I am not my dad, you know. I am Andre and have a different style. I am patient and I will wait for my chance to hit that level,” he said to www.ghanafa.org.
After the Cup of Nations, there was a time during when the people thought that the former Marseille player’s Ghana days were over as he missed out some senior call ups. Andre was rather called up into the national Under-20 side, the Black Satellites and later made the captain of the team.
“I still crave for the Black Stars,” Andre said. “I want to win my place in the Black Stars and also maintain my leadership role in the team (Black Satellites).”
Fight for his place
As someone who has played football at the highest level and now having to step down a bit, Andre Ayew is not naturally frustrated, but remains committed to playing for the national teams with the desire to fighting his way up.
“I always want to play for the national teams. As the leader of the Under-20 team, I always want to play with my colleagues.
“I know I just want to play for the national team.”
“Every player wants to play for the senior team. And I am no different. I just want to play well to earn my place.
“I don’t think I have been demoted. I could have joined the squad for the South Africa friendly game but it’s impossible because of my team. Things like that do happen. But I have to remain strong and be ready to serve my country every time that I am called to.”
Andre Ayew played a game for the national under-20 team in the qualifying series of the Youth Championship which was the final game against the Gambia away – Ghana beat the Gambia over two legs to qualify for the Championship.
He denies rumours that he failed to show up for the team’s other games because he preferred playing for the Black Stars only.
“I had to force my way to come and play in that game. People claimed I didn’t want to come but that wasn’t true. Sometimes we (players) have no control over certain things. The clubs have a say and you just have to go with it.”
“I wanted to be part of the team at all cost to erase the doubts that people had. Qualifying too, has changed the entire situation. We were written off before even leaving Accra for the game. I hope everyone now appreciates our efforts and commitment to the nation.”
Andre played an important part in the Under-20’s qualification to the African Youth Championship after two successive failures and he relishes the chance to lead the team to the finals of the competition to be hosted by Rwanda next year.
Now, he believes the team needs to be prepared well for the challenges ahead in Rwanda.
“They (coaches) have to fine tune the team. We can do better than this and with other players like Osei (Ransford) also coming in, we would step up.
“It’s time for the coaches to prepare well and we (players) also have to concentrate.
“Rwanda would be tough because it would be the eight best Under-20 sides in Africa who would be playing there. We must be committed to winning and from there, we would see what happens.”
A loan move from Marseille to FC Lorient this season has guaranteed Andre Ayew regular football. And he hopes playing every time would help him improve his game.
“For the moment, it’s given me regular football. I play a bit more as a regular player. And I want to continue playing every time.
“Every player enjoys playing regular football and I am no different. I need to play more to improve my game and see what happens after,” he said.
