Speaking on the Obi One Podcast, released on Monday, Ayew reflected on Ghana’s dramatic quarter-final elimination by Uruguay at the tournament in South Africa, describing the incident as a devastating blow to a team that believed it could make history on the world stage.
“And Luis Suarez handling that ball killed a lot of hopes, not just from Ghana, but the whole continent,” Ayew said.
Ghana had entered the quarter-final with growing confidence after an impressive campaign, buoyed by the support of South African fans and the prospect of becoming the first African nation to reach the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup under the tournament’s then-current format.
For Ayew and his teammates, advancing beyond Uruguay appeared to be a realistic target rather than an ambitious dream. The young forward recalled that the squad was already imagining a potential meeting with the Netherlands in the semi-finals and entertaining hopes of reaching the final.
“How are we not going to beat Uruguay? It was not in our heads, to be honest. We were like, As soon as we beat Uruguay, we’re going to face Holland,” he recalled.
“If we get to the semi-finals, we’re going to the finals. There was this belief that having the whole of South Africa behind us.”
That confidence, however, was shattered in the closing moments of extra time in Johannesburg on July 2, 2010, when Suarez deliberately handled Dominic Adiyiah’s goal-bound header on the goal line to prevent Uruguay from conceding what would almost certainly have been a decisive goal.
The intervention earned Suarez a straight red card and handed Ghana a penalty, presenting the Black Stars with an opportunity to secure a place in the last four. But striker Asamoah Gyan struck the crossbar from the spot, forcing the contest into a penalty shootout that Uruguay eventually won 4-2.
Ayew, who watched the encounter from the stands, said his initial reaction to Suarez’s deliberate handball was one of unrestrained anger, intensified by his youth and the magnitude of what was at stake.
“Then Suarez catches this ball. I was in the stands, and I was like, ‘I’m young, 19 or 20; everything is just flying up.’ What’s going on? He’s an idiot; he’s this, he’s that,” he said.
The incident remains one of the most controversial episodes in World Cup history, particularly in Africa, where Ghana’s campaign had inspired hopes that the continent could finally secure a place among the tournament’s final four.
Despite the anguish that followed Gyan’s missed penalty, Ayew said the players did not direct their frustration at the striker. Instead, they recognised his contribution to Ghana’s remarkable run and understood that the responsibility for the team’s achievement could not be reduced to one missed opportunity.
“The players were not angry at the situation of Baby Jet or whatever. We were more like, If you were not there, we wouldn’t get here,” Ayew said, referring to Gyan by his popular nickname.
Gyan had been Ghana’s leading attacking figure throughout the tournament, scoring crucial goals and carrying the hopes of a nation. Ayew described him as the team’s designated penalty taker, underscoring the trust the squad had placed in the striker before the decisive moment.
For Ayew, the episode remains difficult to revisit more than a decade later. Although he occasionally watches footage of the match, he said he avoids the penalty shootout, pointing to Ghana’s painful history in shootouts at major international competitions, including the Africa Cup of Nations.
The controversy resurfaced ahead of Ghana’s meeting with Uruguay at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, when Suarez was asked about the handball and whether he regretted his actions.
The former Uruguay striker refused to apologise, defending his decision by arguing that he had already been punished on the pitch.
“I don’t apologise for it. I apologise if I injure a player, but I took a red card for the handball,” Suarez said.
“It wasn’t my fault because I didn’t miss the penalty.”
His comments reignited debate over an incident that continues to divide opinion between those who view Suarez’s action as an act of desperation within the rules and those who regard it as a cruel interruption of Ghana’s historic ambitions.
For Ayew, however, the pain extends beyond the result itself. The Black Stars had stood on the threshold of a breakthrough that could have reshaped African football’s place in the global game, only for the dream to collapse through a sequence of extraordinary events.
More than 16 years later, the match remains a defining chapter in Ghana’s football story — a night of courage, controversy and heartbreak that left the Black Stars agonisingly close to making history.