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Former Black Stars skipper and African football great, Abedi Ayew Pele, would not have been who he became but for one man.
The man is Herbert Adika.
He was the man who spotted and nurtured Pele’s talent at the juvinille level decades ago.
Abedi played for Mr Adika’s side, Great Falcos as an up and coming player and showed glimpses of what he was made up of when he won the 1978 SWAG Colts Player of the Year.
He went on to become an oustanding player, rising through the ranks with his club football and eventually traveling out of the country and living his mark on the senior national team, the Black Stars.
In a 2010 interview on state broadcaster GBC, whiles Abedi Pele was narrating his journey through the sport, he was asked, “do you remember a name called Herbert Adika?”
His response was: “Yes, of course, we call him chief but if I am sitting here today, he made me who I am.”
Mr. Adika who suffers from visual impairment responded “it is also a privilege for me to see (meet) him too,” when he was ushered into the studio to meet Abedi.
Well, I wouldn’t say I saw him personally but it was through one of our colleague who lived at Dong and they had a rice mill there, so he introduced him to me that he has seen some devilish player at Dong and he will like him to play for Great Falcos.
So we invited him, the first question we put to Abedi Pele was, ‘we have a very strong and dangerous defender here and if you are able to beat him, you will be a good player.
And he proved himself and we saw that this is not a player we will play with. So we quickly signed him on (no payment at the time) we attracted him into your fold and we started.
“He never missed training,” he said of Abedi’s tenacity as he commuted between Dome and Avenor to train. “Whenever he was late (misses the train) he has to sleep at New Town,” he recounted.
Pele played for Great Falcos for about four years and was doing wonders, he said, adding that he excelled in every match and he was generously compensated by the fans financially.
He said he took interest in Pele and would go watch him playing, “and I wasn’t surprised when in 1978, he was voted the Colts Player of the Year, in that ceremonial match, it was so wonderful. I can remember as if it was yesterday,” he stressed.
Mr. Adika was awarded at the 4th Ghana Football Awards event that took place on July 2, 2022 in Accra.
Watch the 2020 interview below:
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
