Ghanaian forward Jordan Ayew has disclosed that his childhood aspirations did not initially revolve around becoming a professional footballer.
The 31-year-old, who has emerged as one of Ghana’s prominent players, accumulating over 90 appearances for the national team, has also garnered acclaim in the English Premier League as one of the country’s finest representatives in the competition.
Nonetheless, the former Olympique Marseille attacker candidly admits that his initial intention was simply to enjoy playing the sport for leisure. It was fortuitous circumstances that presented him with the opportunity to pursue football as a career, and he eagerly embraced it.
“I was playing football but I didn’t really want to play competitively in my youth. I was always playing with my friends from our area and against other areas, and that was fine by me.
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“I just wanted to be with my friends after school, I didn’t want to go to practice. Just to live a normal life,” Ayew said as quoted by Crystal Palace’s official website.
“Then I got to a certain age when I was 10 where I joined an Under-12s team in my area, and I think that’s where the real love for the game started for me,” he added.
Ayew also revealed that during his elder brother Andre Ayew’s trip to embark on trials with Marseille, where his father once played, he had no intention of joining but was persuaded by a Franco-Senegalese football journalist and agent.
“I went to France at the age of 14 and joined the Academy at Marseille. I went to France for my holidays with my auntie and my brother, because [André] was supposed to do a trial at Marseille. I was not planning to stay there.
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“Then my godfather, Pape Diouf, said: ‘Come in and train during the holiday’. That’s where it all started. I went to training and it went very well – they didn’t want me to go back to Accra,” he added.
Ayew holds the record as the Ghanaian with the highest number of goals in the English Premier League with 33 goals.