I learned from Gyan for six years before I became Black Stars captain – Dede Ayew

Black Stars captain Andre ‘Dede’ Ayew has stated that he had to wait for his time to become the leader of the senior national team.

The former Le Havre attacker mentioned that he served as a deputy to former captain Asamoah Gyan for six years before he got the armband. He said 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.”

"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.

Andre Ayew was asked about his tenure and the circumstances that led to him being named the captain of the Black Stars by a student during his guest lecture for the Sports Psychology class of 2024 at the University of Ghana.

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.