‘I Want To Win The AFCON Or World Cup For Ghana’- Black Stars Captain

The Black Stars of Ghana captain, Andre Ayew, says he dreams of winning a major trophy for the Black Stars; whether that’s the Africa Cup of Nations title or the FIFA World Cup trophy.

Ayew became captain of the senior national team in 2019, and led the team to two AFCON tournaments where they were knocked out in the round of 16 and the group stages in 2019 and 2022 respectively.

The 33-year-old has already tasted glory as captain at youth level, leading Ghana to the FIFA U-20 World Cup trophy in 2009, the only African country to win the trophy till date.

The Al Sadd forward wants to achieve a similar feet with the Black Stars, as the team prepares for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

“For myself, to be real, I don’t have personal targets. The only personal target I had— and still have — since I joined the Black Stars was to win a trophy with the team. That’s my only target and I’ve been close a number of times (the 2010 AFCON and 2015 AFCON final).

“I won the Under-20 AFCON and won the Under-20 World Cup trophies, but my only target is to win a trophy in the Black Stars jersey, any trophy that I can win — AFCON or the World Cup trophy. That’s my goal, that’s my aim and that’s what I pray and work hard for every day,” he told the Daily Graphic in an interview.

"Everything is in place for us to have a successful World Cup".

Black Stars captain Andre Ayew believes that the team has the right ingredients to succeed in Qatar. #3Sports pic.twitter.com/GjxKdItqdK

— #3Sports (@3SportsGh) September 26, 2022

Ghana has been paired with Portugal, Uruguay and South Korea in Group H at the 2022 World Cup set to begin in Qatar on November 20, 2022.

Ayew concedes the group is difficult for the Black Stars, who have qualified out of the group stages in two of their 3 World Cup appearances, only failing to do so in 2014.

“It’s a tough group, no doubt about it. The first match is against Portugal who are one of the favourites in the tournament, but we are ready. As I said, we have the players, we have the quality and the staff to help us go through this.

“But if you look at all the teams they are ranked higher by FIFA than us, so on paper they are favourites and we are the underdogs. We take it like that,” he concluded.

The Black Stars have been preparing for the mundial with friendly games in September.

They lost 3-0 to Brazil in France on Friday September 23, and will face Nicaragua in Spain on Tuesday September 27, 2022 at 6pm