Legendary Ghanaian footballer Abedi Ayew ‘Pele’ has revealed that he became a house owner at the young age of 17.
Abedi Ayew, father of the famous Ayew brothers, Andre and Jordan, had a prolific football career spanning over two decades.
He began his career at Real Tamale United (RTU) in Ghana before moving to Qatari side Al Sadd, where he spent a year before joining FC Zurich.
The now 59-year-old later played for notable clubs including Olympique Marseille, Lille, Lyon, Torino, 1860 Munich, and Al Ain before retiring.
Abedi disclosed that he was earning around $10,000 when he joined Al Sadd as a teenager after the 1982 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Libya. He used part of that money to build his first house in Alajo, Accra, becoming a house owner at just 17.
“We went to Libya in 1982 and then we came down, so I will say that at the age of 17 or 17-and-a-half I had turned professional, and my first professional country was to go to Qatar for about two years, I won every trophy,” Abedi told Bola Ray in an interview.
“I earned $10,000 at the time, that was 20 to 22 years ago and RTU had a signing-on fee of $50,000 to $60,000. I tell you it was a huge amount. I had no amount for signing but I had my salaries and bonuses.
“When I came [to Ghana], I built a small house at Alajo getting to the railway line, so at the age of 17-18, I had built my first house.”
Abedi was a national treasure in the 1980s and 1990s, part of the team that won Ghana’s last AFCON trophy in 1982.
He was also named African Footballer of the Year three times and won the UEFA Champions League with Olympique Marseille.
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