Abedi Pele

Abedi Pele - Quick Facts

Profile Overview of Abedi Pele

Abedi Ayew ( ə-BAY-dee ə-YOO; born 5 November 1964), known professionally as Abedi Pele, is a Ghanaian former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder and served as captain of the Ghana national team. He is rated as one of the greatest African footballers of all time. He played for several European clubs and found his fame in the French Ligue 1 with Lille and Marseille. At the latter, he won the UEFA Champions League in 1993, among other titles. He was also the first to win the CAF award in 1992.

This profile of Abedi Pele covers Early Life and Family Background, Club Career, International Career, After retirement and Football ambassador.

Early Life and Family Background of Abedi Pele

Abedi Ayew was born into a family in the town of Kibi and grew up in the town of Dome at the northern outskirts of the city Accra.

He attended Ghana Senior High School in Tamale. He was given the nickname "Pelé" due to his ability in football, which evoked comparisons to the late Brazilian athlete Pelé.

Club Career of Abedi Pele

Abedi Pele was one of the first African players to make an impact on European club football. His nomadic career began with Real Tamale United in Ghana in 1978. He left Ghana after the 1982 African Cup of Nations to join Al Sadd in Qatar for a $1,000 transfer fee. After a short spell with FC Zürich in which he did not play a single league match, he returned to Ghana but, after both Kotoko and Hearts of Oak failed to sign him, joined AS Dragons FC de l'Ouémé in Benin. He would later return to Ghana and play for Real Tamale United for one season. He began his career in Europe with French side Chamois Niort, later joining Marseille before transferring to Lille on loan.

At club level, he was a key figure in Marseille's dominance of the French league, resulting in four league championships and two European Cup finals appearances. At Marseille, he was a member of the team's "Magical Trio" along with Jean-Pierre Papin and Chris Waddle, spearheading perhaps Europe's strongest league side of the early 1990s, including a European Cup final defeat in 1991. Abedi Pele was the only remaining member of the trio still with the side when Marseille defeated Milan in the 1993 Champions League final in Munich.

He later joined Lyon after his loan spell at Lille. He also played for Torino of Italy and rounded out his European career with 1860 Munich.

Abedi Pele signed a two-year contract with Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates and was nominated one of the best foreign players to play in the UAE league.

International Career

Abedi Pele played for Ghana 73 times. He was a fixture in the African Championships of the 1980s and '90s with his national team, and a member of Ghana's victorious team in the 1982 African Cup of Nations, but he never had an opportunity to play in the FIFA World Cup, as the Black Stars failed to qualify for the competition during his career. But he was the most dominant figure on the African football scene for nearly a decade. His performance in the 1992 African Cup of Nations, for which he was voted the player of the tournament, was particularly notable, as he scored in three successive rounds to help Ghana reach the final, but picked up a yellow card in the semi-final against Nigeria that meant he was suspended for the final; Ghana went on to lose on penalties to the Ivory Coast. The performance earned him the added nickname of "The African Maradona".

Abedi Pele was one of the first African football players to earn a top placing in FIFA World Player of the Year voting, doing so in 1991 and 1992. He won the France Football African Player of the Year Award three consecutive years, was the inaugural winner of the BBC African Sports Star of the Year in 1992, and the corresponding Confederation of African Football award twice.

Abedi Pele holds the record for most appearances at the African Cup of Nations. He made his first appearance at the in Libya in 1982 and continued to compete at the tournament for the next 16 years, his last appearance coming in the 1998 edition in Burkina Faso. Aside from his exploits at the 1992 competition, he also earned much acclaim for his three goals at the 1996 competition, where he led Ghana to the semi-finals of the competition despite critics expecting him to be in the twilight of his career.

After retirement

Abedi Pele has participated in more FIFA organized charity matches than any other African player. He is a member of FIFA's Football Committee, and of the player status committees of both FIFA and CAF. The South African FA made him a spokesperson for their 2006 World Cup bid.

In appreciation of Abedi Pele's service to the country, the Ghanaian government gave him the country's highest honour, the Order of the Volta (civil division). He was the first Ghanaian sportsman to be so honoured.

On 29 January 1997, the first UEFA–CAF Meridian Cup All-Star Match between Europe and Africa was played in Benfica's Estádio da Luz in Lisbon and was televised in 100 countries worldwide, including 30 in Africa, for an audience of 60 million viewers. Abedi Pele scored a goal early in the first half and, after Vincent Guérin had equalised for Europe just before half-time, it was the 1998 African Player of the Year, Mustapha Hadji, who struck Africa's 78th-minute winner in the 2–1 win.

In 2001, the UEFA–CAF Meridian Cup All-Star Match format was changed slightly for the second All-Star Match to bring together players aged between 35 and 45 who now have a 'veteran' status and play the game purely for pleasure. The squad sparked off their memories at club and international level.

Football ambassador

In June 2001 he was nominated by the present government of Ghana to serve as the next chairman of the FA, an opportunity he later gave up for a more experienced former coach of Ghana for which in his own words said that this was to be an opportunity to learn from his superiors.

At present he owns a first division club, called Nania, with the future hopes of nurturing the young talent to augment the fledgling league of the country. He has also been involved with charity work across the African continent.

Source: adapted from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abedi_Pele), text available under CC BY-SA 4.0.