Black Stars captain Andre Ayew has revealed that he had to learn from previous leaders to become the skipper for the team.
According to the former West Ham and Le Havre forward, he had to serve as a deputy to former captain Asamoah Gyan for six years before he got the armband.
Andre added that he was well-prepared for the media scrutiny about his captaincy and knew that, with time, people would move on from it.
“It’s always an issue. That is why I say you have to know the society in which you are, the mentality of your country. How people see things, how people understand things, it’s very important," he said while speaking as the guest lecturer for the Sports Psychology class of 2024 at the University of Ghana.
"The captaincy in our country will always be a debate sooner or later. The next one who is coming will be another debate. That is how it is. Anybody who is going to be the leader should be ready for that because you can’t take it away. There are things you need to learn from, be prepared, and you let it brush off like nothing and you move on,” Andre Ayew stated.
Ayew added that it was obvious he was going to be captain of the Black Stars, hence he spent more time preparing and understudying Asamoah Gyan.
“I was already Asamoah’s assistant for about six years. When you know that [you can become a captain], sooner or later it’s going to happen. So you just need to prepare yourself and learn from Asamoah, who was the captain,” he stated.
“Get the little guidelines because any decision that was supposed to be taken, you have the senior players, assistant, and captain who are there, so you are already in that group of leaders,” he added.
Ayew and Gyan had an alleged lingering battle over the Black Stars captaincy, which started as far back as 2017 and reached its crescendo in 2019 when Asamoah Gyan threatened to retire from the national team in the lead-up to the AFCON.