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 totals of 131 games and 51 goals over the course of six seasons.
Club career
Born in Tamale, Ayew started playing professionally in France at only 17, spending a couple of Ligue 1 seasons with FC Metz, then moved to Qatar with Al Ahli SC and played in another country in the following two years, Italy, appearing and scoring sparingly for U.S. Lecce (for instance, he netted four goals in 1993–94's Serie A 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 and Vitória de Setúbal, then impressed at Boavista F.C. also in the Primeira Liga, 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.
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 Sadinosavoided top flight relegation by one point; he retired from the game shortly after.
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. His nephews, André, Jordan and Rahim, also played the sport professionally.[5]
Career statistics
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition