Kwame Ayew (born 28 December 1973) is a

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

ian former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a striker. During nearly 20 years he played professionally in six countries, mainly in Portugal where he appeared for four teams in the 90s, amassing

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

totals of 131 games and 51 goals over the course of six seasons.

Club career

Born in

Tamale A tamale, in Spanish language, Spanish , is a traditional Mesoamerican dish made of ''masa'', a dough made from nixtamalization, nixtamalized maize, corn, which is steaming, steamed in a corn husk or Banana leaf, banana leaves. The wrapping ...

, Ayew started playing professionally in France at only 17, spending a couple of

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

seasons with

FC Metz Football Club de Metz () is a Football in France, French association football club based in Metz, Lorraine. The club was formed in 1932 and plays in Ligue 1, the highest division in the French football league system, for the 2025–26 Ligue 1, ...

, then moved to Qatar with Al Ahli SC and played in another country in the following two years,

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, appearing and scoring sparingly for

U.S. Lecce Unione Sportiva Lecce () is a Football in Italy, professional Italian football club based in Lecce, Apulia. The club play in Serie A in the 2023–24 Serie A, 2023–24 season, the top level of the Italian football league system, Italian footb ...

(for instance, he netted four goals in 1993–94's

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

as his club ranked last with only 28 goals, a competition-worst). Ayew moved to Portugal in 1995, and would remain there in the following five years. He started with

U.D. Leiria União Desportiva de Leiria (), commonly known as União de Leiria, is a Portuguese professional football club based in Leiria. Founded on 6 June 1966, it currently plays in the Liga Portugal 2, holding home matches at Estádio Dr. Magalhães Pe ...

and

Vitória de Setúbal Vitoria or Vitória may refer to: People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Sofia Vitória (bor ...

, then impressed at

Boavista F.C. Boavista Futebol Clube (), commonly known as Boavista, is a Portuguese professional sports club from the of Porto that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football league system, Portuguese football, at the Estádio do B ...

also in the

, scoring 15 times in 27 games in his second season to earn his team a best-ever at the time runner-up place, behind neighbours

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, Order of Prince Henry, MHIH, Order of Merit (Portugal), OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional association footbal ...

. After nearly 50 official goals for Boavista, Ayew moved to country giants

Sporting Clube de Portugal Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

. Even though he was never an automatic first-choice (having to battle for a starting berth with

Alberto Acosta Alberto Federico 'Beto' Acosta Tabizzi (born 23 August 1966) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a striker. In a professional career which spanned 18 years (nearly 700 official games and more than 250 goals), he pla ...

Edmílson José Edmílson Gomes de Moraes (born 10 July 1976), known simply as Edmílson, is a Brazilian football executive and former professional footballer. He is currently a technical consultant for São Caetano. Either a defensive midfielder or ...

and Mbo Mpenza), he netted seven goals in 13 starts as the ''Lions'' ended an 18-year drought and conquered the national championship. In the following years Ayew would play in Turkey (two seasons) and China (five), rarely settling with a club. In January 2007 the 33-year-old returned to former side Setúbal, contributing solidly as the '' Sadinos'' avoided top flight relegation by one point; he retired from the game shortly after.

International career

Ayew was a member of the Ghana national team that won the bronze medal at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, scoring six goals in as many games. In total, he won 25 senior

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

Education

Ayew attended Ghana Senior High School in Tamale.

Personal life

Football ran in Ayew's family: his brothers Abedi and Sola also played football, the former spending a big part of his career with

Olympique de Marseille Olympique de Marseille (, ; , ), also known simply as Marseille, or by the abbreviation OM (, ), is a French professional Association football, football club based in Marseille which competes in Ligue 1, the French football league system, top f ...

. His nephews,

André André — sometimes transliterated as Andre — is the French and Portuguese form of the name Andrew and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It used in France, Quebec, Canada and other French-speaking countries, as well in Portugal ...

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

and

Rahim Rahim (''Raḥīm'' , also anglicized as Raheem) is an Arabic word meaning "Merciful", from the root '' R-Ḥ-M.'' Al-Rahim (the Merciful) is one of the attributes of God according to Islam. It is a male given name, sometimes a hypocorism for Abdu ...

, also played the sport professionally.

Career statistics

Honours

Player

Boavista * Supertaça de Portugal:

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

Sporting *

: 1999–2000 Kocaelispor *

Turkish Cup The Turkish Cup () is a football cup competition in Turkish football, run by the Turkish Football Federation since 1962. During a brief sponsorship period with Fortis, its sponsored name was ''Fortis Türkiye Kupası''. Now Ziraat Bankası is ...

: 2001–02

International

Ghana * Olympic Bronze Medal:

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ayew, Kwame 1973 births Living people Ghanaian men's footballers Men's association football forwards FC Metz players Al Ahli SC (Doha) players Serie A players Serie B players US Lecce players Primeira Liga players U.D. Leiria players Qatar Stars League players Vitória F.C. players Boavista F.C. players Sporting CP footballers Süper Lig players Yozgatspor footballers Kocaelispor footballers Chinese Super League players Beijing Chengfeng F.C. players Guangzhou City F.C. players Ghana men's international footballers 1994 African Cup of Nations players 1996 African Cup of Nations players 2000 African Cup of Nations players Footballers at the 1992 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Ghana Olympic bronze medalists for Ghana Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Ghanaian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in France Expatriate men's footballers in Qatar Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in China Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in France Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in China Footballers from Tamale, Ghana Ghana Senior High School (Tamale) alumni K