This analysis is written in response to the ongoing discussion surrounding the possible inclusion of André “Dede” Ayew in the Ghana national football team squad the Bl;ack Stars for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, scheduled to be hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The debate has largely centred on the value of experience versus the traditional selection principles of form, fitness and tactical suitability. Experience in international tournament football is unquestionably an asset.
Players who have participated in multiple World Cups and Africa Cup of Nations tournaments often possess an understanding of pressure, match tempo and game management that younger players are still developing. However, experience on its own cannot override the fundamental criteria upon which elite football selection must be based.
At international level, especially in a tournament as demanding as the World Cup, selection must ultimately rest on three core pillars: current form, physical readiness and tactical suitability within the manager’s system.
A player’s past achievements and reputation may provide context, but they cannot substitute for evidence that the player can still perform effectively at the required competitive level. For this reason, any case supporting the inclusion of André Ayew must be built primarily on his current usefulness to the national team rather than on his historical standing. His more than 120 international caps, his goals for Ghana, and his long service to the Black Stars remain important elements of his legacy. Yet they cannot, by themselves, determine his place in a squad preparing for the 2026 World Cup.
The central question therefore becomes much narrower and more objective: over the last three years, has André Ayew demonstrated through his club performances that he remains capable of contributing meaningfully to Ghana in specific World Cup match situations, either as a starting attacker or as a specialised squad option? Only by examining his club activity, match involvement, statistical output and physical continuity over this period can a fair conclusion be reached. The following analysis therefore reviews his professional trajectory during the past three seasons in order to determine whether the evidence supports his selection or whether the numbers suggest that the national team should look elsewhere.
The first thing that jumps out and hits me is how fragmented his recent club career has been. Nottingham Forest confirmed in June 2023 that Ayew was leaving on a free transfer. Transfermarkt then records his move from “without club” to Le Havre on 11 November 2023, his return to free-agent status on 30 June 2024, his re-signing for Le Havre in early October 2024, and NAC Breda’s official announcement says he had again been clubless since the summer before signing in Breda on 31 December 2025. Put together, that is roughly 13 and a half months without a club across the last three years.
That is not a minor footnote; it is one of the central facts in the selection debate. Lets start with 2022–23. Ayew’s final months at Al Sadd and then his move to Nottingham Forest produced 25 appearances, 4 goals, 1 assist and 1,340 minutes in all competitions. The split matters. In Qatar, he had 9 league appearances, 3 goals and 1 assist, plus 1 goal in 3 Qatari Stars Cup matches. At Forest, however, he made 13 Premier League appearances for 307 minutes, with no goals and no assists, and only one start. That is the profile of a fringe player option in a serious survival battle, not a player that is driving those games at elite European level!
From a coaching standpoint, the Forest spell is especially important because it is the closest recent reference point to World Cup-level intensity. The raw numbers say he could still contribute physically in short bursts, but they also say he struggled to secure sustained minutes against Premier League opposition. If Ghana are selecting him to start at a World Cup, Forest is evidence against that idea. If Ghana are selecting him as an experienced late-game option, the evidence is less negative, but still very much limited.
Then came his first Le Havre spell in 2023–24, which was clearly the best section of his last three years. He joined on 11 November 2023 after more than four months without a club, and still finished that season with 20 appearances, 6 goals, 3 assists and 1,188 minutes. In Ligue 1 alone, he posted 19 appearances, 5 goals and 2 assists. That is real output in a top-five European league, and it deserves maximum respect.
However, it was not a smooth start by any atretch of the imagination. On his Le Havre debut against Nantes in November 2023 he was sent off shortly after coming on, which immediately raised questions about rhythm and sharpness after his spell without a club. But the more important point is what happened after that. He recovered, became influential enough to be voted Le Havre’s Player of the Month for February 2024, and scored in major pressure matches, including the 3-3 draw away to PSG. That stretch is the strongest evidence for his continued value: he showed he could still enter a relegation fight, handle pressure, and deliver an end product.
That first Le Havre period helps the pro-selection case in another way. It suggests Ayew’s game has evolved from pure dynamism into competitive intelligence. He was no longer dominating with pace, but he was reading moments, attacking the box well, and bringing authority to a stressed team. For a World Cup squad, that matters, because tournament football is often decided by players who understand game states; referring to intelligence not just those who win foot races.
The problem is that he did not sustain that level cleanly. After becoming a free agent again in summer 2024, he rejoined Le Havre in October. In 2024–25 he played 28 matches in all competitions, scoring 4 goals with 1 assist in 1,541 minutes. In Ligue 1, that was 27 appearances, 4 goals and 1 assist. Those are respectable numbers for a veteran in a struggling side, but they are materially down on his previous Le Havre run. This was more a season of grind than impact. Le Havre still valued him. Reporting on his departure noted that he had extended in October 2024 and that the club praised his competitiveness after helping them preserve Ligue 1 status. That supports the argument that he remained useful inside a dressing room and inside a survival campaign. But usefulness is not the same as selection-proof form. A World Cup place should normally go to players who are either clearly productive or clearly indispensable tactically. His 2024–25 season does not quite hit either threshold on numbers alone.
The next concern is continuity again. NAC Breda’s official statement says Ayew had been clubless since the summer of 2025 before signing on 31 December 2025. A six-month gap at age 36 is significant. It means every positive interpretation of his current form has to be tempered by the question of how much sustained match rhythm he can truly build before a major tournament.
At NAC Breda, the early signs are encouraging but still too small to overstate. ESPN’s current Eredivisie player stats show him on 9 league appearances, with 4 starts and 5 substitute outings, 1 goal, 0 assists and 9 shots. His goal came in the 3-3 draw with Feyenoord on 8 March 2026, his first for the club. That is a positive headline because Feyenoord are serious opposition, but one good week is not enough to erase two separate issues: age-related decline and repeated breaks in competitive continuity. So the honest reading is this: his NAC spell has reopened the conversation, not settled it. If he now strings together starts, holds his level physically, and adds goals or decisive contributions in the run-in, his case strengthens fast. If the Feyenoord goal remains an isolated moment, then it is a narrative spike rather than selection evidence.
The international picture is also mixed. Transfermarkt’s season logs show only 3 Ghana appearances in 2023–24’s AFCON/friendly cycle and 3 substitute appearances in friendlies across that period, while other reporting shows he was left out of Ghana’s August 2024 AFCON qualifier squad and was reportedly set to miss the March 2025 World Cup qualifiers as well. In plain terms, he has not been a central on-field figure for the Black Stars in the most recent cycle.
That weakens any claim that he must be selected because the national team still revolves around him. It clearly does not! From an agent’s perspective, the strongest case for Ayew is not “pick him because he is André Ayew.” It is narrower and smarter than that. He offers tournament experience, emotional authority, positional flexibility across the front line, aerial presence, composure in high-pressure moments, and evidence from Le Havre and now NAC that he can still affect survival-type matches where mentality matters as much as fluency. Those are real squad assets.
From a coach’s perspective, the strongest case against him is equally clear. Over the last three years he has had repeated inactivity, only one recent stretch of clearly strong top-flight output, modest production in 2024–25, and a current NAC sample that is promising but still thin. If Ghana are selecting on sustained form, age profile, pressing intensity, and week-to-week continuity, younger in-form forwards would have the stronger claim.
My recommendation is this. André Ayew should not be selected automatically, and he should not be selected as a starting forward on reputation. But he does have a defensible case for inclusion in the final Ghana World Cup squad if his NAC Breda trajectory from now to the end of the season shows three things: regular minutes, stable physical availability, and continued decisive contributions rather than isolated moments.
On the evidence of the last three years alone, the objective verdict is that he is a viable squad-option candidate, but not yet a selection certainty. If selection were being made today strictly on the full body of recent evidence, I would place him on the borderline: worthy of serious consideration for one of the final attacking places, but only if the technical staff want leadership, game management and late-game experience in the squad mix and that’s my whole sale objective few.
Source: Nana Kwaku Agyemang
