Ayew came close to joining Athletico Madrid

Father and manager of Swansea City’s Andre Ayew says his son was close to agreeing a deal with Spanish La Liga side Athletico Madrid before switching to Swansea.

The 25-year-old enjoyed a dream debut for Swansea City after scoring and helping his side grind out a 2-2 drawn game against English Champions Chelsea last Saturday.

Ayew turned down offers from Liverpool, Tottenham and Roma to sign for Cardiff based Swansea City.

The move to Swansea came as a surprise to many especially with Ayew playing for the best French club Marseille, for eleven seasons.

But his father Abedi Ayew Pele has defended the move and revealed it came down to deciding between Athletico Madrid and Swansea City which the former showed more interest.

“Considering Andre’s transfer I went to France for a whole one month and the biggest stumbling block was that he had changed a lot of managers within a short period of time,” Abedi told Accra based Citi FM

“When negotiations started I met Roma first and then Athletico Madrid who were close but a free agent is a free agent and a player like Andre’s caliber you must be prepared to pay a lot for him.”

“Right now even though the start is well we can’t say we made the right decision we only hope that at the end of the season we come back and be proud of what we did.”

Ayew will play his second game for Garry Monk’s side when they face Newcastle this weekend.