Ayew credits Ghana’s 2009 U-20 World Cup victory to inspiration from Brazil’s footballing past.
The captain of Ghana’s illustrious Black Satellites squad, which won the U-20 World Cup in 2009, revealed that the achievement was motivated by Ghana’s football relationship with Brazil as well as how much closer to them the trophy was than they had anticipated.
Ghana has played Brazil several times in difficult matches at all levels of football, including the Black Stars’ 3-0 loss to South Americans in the round of 16 of the 2006 World Cup, before facing them in the final of the 2009 World Cup in Egypt.
In the U-17 World Cup in 2007, Brazil was defeated in the round of 16 thanks to a single goal from Isaac Donkor, and a substantial portion of that Black Satellites team had previously played for the Black Starlets.
2009
Those head-to-head encounters and moving closer to the trophy, according to Andre Ayew, the current captain of the senior national team, were enough motivation to play their hearts out for the victory.
“Ghana and Brazil have a unique history in terms of young football. Meetings between the two teams were often contentious, even before my time. To be really honest, we didn’t want to play the Seleçao in a preliminary round since they were the best team in the competition, Ayew said in a FIFA interview.
“In the end, it was a completely different narrative. We wanted to seize the opportunity to change history and were aware that we might be able to do so. We assured ourselves that just 90 or 120 minutes stood between us and a world championship.
The only African team to win the U-20 World Cup, Ghana defeated South Americans despite playing the bulk of the match with one fewer player when defender Daniel Addo was dismissed in the 37th minute.
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