Andre Ayew was supposed to feel the pressure.
The two men appointed only few months ago as his vice-captains for the Black Stars, Ghana’s senior national team, had switched things up in the summer with moves to clubs bigger than those they previously played for — Richard Ofori from Maritzburg United to Orlando Pirates (both in South Africa), Thomas Partey on a Ghanaian record transfer to English giant Arsenal from Spain’s Atletico Madrid — and made the headlines.
Partey’s arrival in the Premier League, particularly, must have placed Ghana in an awkward situation, one in which the country’s skipper played in a league directly inferior to that in which the man he now deputized for featured. Ayew was already a few games into another season in the Championship with Swansea City, and calls only grew louder back home about the need for him to move back into top-flight realms in the next transfer window. Ghana’s captain playing second-tier football (even if in England)?
Not cool; almost embarrassing, in fact.
But Ayew’s head hasn’t dropped and, for a second term, he is proving Swansea’s most influential player. Thus far this season, as in 2019/20, he has reprised his role as the Welsh side’s topscorer, with five goals in 11 league games helping Swansea secure a strong early footing on the table and renewed hopes of a successful promotion bid.
In the meantime, Ayew has also set about dispelling any lingering doubts about his international career – and, more crucially, his leadership on that front – being blighted by one season too many in a lower league. Last month, days after a miserable debut for head coach Charles Akonnor against Mali, Ayew put in a great shift as a vastly improved Ghana smashed Asian champions Qatar 5-1.
That may have only been a friendly, but when, on Thursday in Cape Coast, Akonnor’s first competitive game (one of two against Sudan in less than a week) came around, Ayew’s brilliance still shone through. Sudan have always been tricky opponents for Ghana, and again they threatened to be a banana peel, even as the Stars sought to maintain their perfect record in the hunt for a place at the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations. Ghana could have slipped — and there were, indeed, a few nervous moments that might have swung the game the guests’ way — but Ayew offered handrails with two pieces of blinding genius.
A first-half free-kick by the 30-year-old pried open some breathing space for the Stars, before Ayew cut in late to net a sweet strike that capped what was a solid, if not spectacular, collective display. Those goals were his 18th and 19th — a second brace in two international games — on an occasion that inched him ever closer to a century of caps, helping Ghana take another small, steady step toward winning that elusive fifth Nations Cup trophy.
This, though, was more a victory for Ayew than for his nation. In the 13 years his senior Ghana career has lasted, Ayew has had to endure persistent claims by detractors that — along with his brother, Jordan — he has merely lived off the ‘benefits’ of being a son of Abedi Ayew, arguably Ghana’s greatest player ever. And maybe, yes, that privileged background may have smoothened Ayew’s path into the Stars setup all those years ago — perhaps, too, even being the reason why he was handed the armband last year, if you really believe that crap — but a famous surname alone could only get him so far.
Ayew’s indisputable talent, sheer class, and honest effort — all on display in his latest outing — have been far more important factors in establishing his place as Ghana’s leading man, rubbishing all criticism about the level at which he currently plays his club football. My colleague, Emmanuel Ayamga, posted on Facebook, after the Sudan game was over, that for all his exploits in the national shirt, “Ayew will retire as a Ghana legend.”
That, I think, should be a unanimous decision in the court of public opinion now.
Enn Y. Frimpong — Daily Mail GH
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