New Crystal Palace signing Jordan Ayew has reflected on his career, explaining how his brother Andre was a key reason that he left Marseille in 2014.
Ayew joined Palace on a season-long loan deal last campaign after Swansea suffered relegation to the Championship, where he made 20 Premier League appearances for the Eagles, scoring once.
Having now rejoined for a fee of around £2.5million, Jordan reflects on his time with first club Marseille, and what it was like living in the shadow of his brother. As reported by Goal who cite Crystal Palace’s official website, Ayew said:
It was a very difficult moment because Marcelo Bielsa was at Marseille and he wanted to keep me but I went to Sochaux for six months on loan to get some minutes ahead of the World Cup and I really enjoyed it.
When I came back to Marseille I wanted to be a really important player somewhere. In Marseille they had my brother and [Andre-Pierre] Gignac and other really top players, so the only thing I could do was move to a team that would give me an opportunity and responsibility.
I could have stayed at Marseille my whole life; I had friends there and it was like my home and I had come through the youth team, so everything was perfect but I didn’t want to just be there and relax, I wanted challenges and to test myself.
