Abedi Pele: I built my first house at the age of 17
Legendary Ghanaian footballer Abedi Pele has disclosed that he became a house owner at the young age of 17.
Abedi Pele: I built my first house at the age of 17 (VIDEO)
Abedi – who is the father of the Ayew brothers, Andre and Jordan – had a successful football career that spanned over two decades.
Having begun his career at Real Tamale United (RTU) in Ghana, Abedi’s talent took him to Qatari side Al Sadd, where he spent a year before joining FC Zurich.
The 59-year-old would later play for Olympique Marseille, Lille, Lyon, Torino, 1860 Munich and Al Ain before hanging his boots.
Abedi has, however, revealed 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.
According to him, he used part of that money to build his first house at Alajo in Accra and, therefore, became a house owner at 17.
“We went to Libya in 1982 and then we came down, so I will say that at the age 17 or 17-and-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 and was part of the team that won the country’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.
Source: PulseGhana
