Black Stars captain Andre Ayew has said Luis Suarez's handball incident in South Africa during the 2010 FIFA World Cup killed Ghana and Africa's dream of reaching the World Cup semi-finals for the first time.
Suarez remains a public enemy for the majority of Ghanaians and Africans after deliberately blocking Dominic Adiyiah's goal-bound header with his hand in the dying minutes of Ghana's quarter-final match against Uruguay.
Though the Black Stars were awarded a penalty for the forward's action, the resulting advantage was not capitalized on, as Ghana went on to lose the game on penalties, while Uruguay advanced to the semi-finals stage.
“Like I said before and I said in the past that maybe if it was me or someone else, I could have done the same on the action,” the Al Sadd forward told Joy Sports when asked about Suarez’s action.
“It’s true he killed us, he killed our dream, he killed Africans’ dream, and we all have that feeling that he didn’t make us the first [African] country to get to the semifinals, so that will always be there.
“But he did it for his nation, he took a decision but we don’t look at that, we want to play well and try and succeed.”
Ghana captain @AyewAndre says he'd probably have done exactly what Luis Suárez did against Ghana in 2010, as the two are set to meet again at this year's World Cup.
Ayew's exclusive interview with @garyalsmith airs 19/4.#JoySports pic.twitter.com/lZJe3MXPzQ
— Joy Sports (@JoySportsGH) April 14, 2022
Ghana have the chance to avenge the painful loss as they will play Uruguay in their final group game at the World Cup in Qatar later this year. The pair were drawn in Group H alongside Portugal and South Korea.