Abedi Pele

Abedi Ayew (/əˈbeɪdi əˈjuː/ 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 regarded 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.

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.

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, 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, subsequently 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.^{[citation needed]}

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. However, he was arguably 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".