Andre Ayew calmed my nerves on my World Cup debut – Gideon Mensah

Ghana defender Gideon Mensah has revealed Andre Ayew was key for him in settling down for his first World Cup game.

In 2022, Mensah had the opportunity to play for the Black Stars at the Mundial, with Ghana making a return after missing the 2018 edition.

Abdul Baba Rahman was Ghana’s first-choice left-back heading into the competition and had featured in the friendly against Switzerland and the first game at the World Cup against Portugal.

Mensah started Ghana’s second game against South Korea a game Otto Addo’s side recorded a 3-2 narrow win in Qatar. The defender had come in after pressure had mounted on Addo to make changes to his team.

For the Auxerre man, that starting berth against South Korea was a surprise.

In an interview with Flashscore, Mensah revealed his nerves ran very high ahead of kick-off given how momentous the occasion was.

“I remember during the warm-up, the captain Andre Ayew came to me,” he recalled. “It was like head to head; his head was right in front of my forehead. He said, ‘Listen, you’ve been waiting for this. This is the moment where you need to show everybody’s watching you. You can’t make mistakes—you can’t let them down.’”

“That was something that really helped me a lot,” he reflected. “After that speech, I forgot about everything else. Being on the field, I didn’t think about whoever was watching; I was just focused on the game.”

Mensah rose to the occasion and played a key role in the win over the Koreans. His low cross led to Mohammed Kudus’ winning goal as Ghana emerged winners in a thrilling 3-2 scoreline.

Mensah has been in the national team since November 2019.