Ghanaian forward André Ayew has explained why he remained silent after being left out of Ghana’s 2026 FIFA World Cup squad, despite featuring regularly for Dutch side NAC Breda.
Ayew made 17 appearances in the Dutch league, starting eight of those games and playing a total of 881 minutes, an average of about 52 minutes per appearance. He also scored one goal during his time with NAC Breda.
Speaking on the Mikel Obi Podcast, Ayew said he was aware that some people were calling for his inclusion and pointed to the playing time of some of the players who eventually travelled to the World Cup.
“I was playing regularly for NAC Breda, and I know some people were calling for me to be part. To be fair, some of the players who went to the World Cup, they didn’t have a lot of gametime in the season.”
Ayew acknowledged that there was plenty of discussion surrounding his omission, but he deliberately chose not to respond publicly.
“People said a lot of things.”
The veteran Ghanaian revealed that he felt he had been treated unfairly by people within the GFA, the media and elsewhere, but decided that speaking out would not be worth damaging his relationship with the country.
“A lot of people in the [GFA, media and elsewhere] did me a lot of wrong. I felt it. But I did not say one word [because] I cannot spit on my country because of certain people. Ghana is more important.”