Almost as soon as he could count, Andre Ayew lost track of the times he had watched the goal that won Marseilles the European Cup (now the Uefa Champions League).<\/p>\n
\u201dIt\u2019s something I grew up with \u2014 the corner coming in; the header,\u201d he says, recalling a cross being met at AC Milan\u2019s near post by Basile Boli. \u201cBut it\u2019s not just me. It\u2019s a goal France will never forget, the first and only Champions League for a French club.\u201d<\/p>\n
If France recalls with clarity the Boli header, Ayew lingers on the identity of the crosser. His father took that corner. Left-footed, high and looping, with a late curl just before Boli leaps and flexes his neck: 1-0 to Marseilles, the underdog conqueror of Milan in Munich, 18 seasons ago.<\/p>\n
To compare the television close-ups of Abedi Pele Ayew then to his son now is striking, and not just because of shared facial features. There\u2019s the fine left foot, too, and the Marseilles shirt.<\/p>\n
Andre Ayew, known as Dede, is at the club where his father reached his highest peaks in football, and on Wednesday he will play his first game in the knockout phase of the Champions League against Manchester United.<\/p>\n
Dede Ayew is 21. He talks with unusual maturity for one so young. That may be the benefit of a privileged education \u2014 he attended baccalaureate schools in the countries where his father played \u2014 but as he speaks, what becomes clear is that he grew up with rare pressures. Sports audiences can be unforgiving judges of heirs. Just ask Jordi Cruyff, Chris Cowdrey or Liam Botham.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was difficult,\u201d Dede remembers, \u201cwas people always talking about my dad and what he had done, always wanting to see him in me.\u201d His attitude? \u201cI\u2019d been taught to expect that. When I decided to try to make a life in football, I knew what would be waiting . . . and I knew I wanted to make my own name in it.\u201d<\/p>\n
For that, Dede had expert advice. Abedi Ayew also had a name to live up to: he had assumed the sobriquet Pele as a teenage prodigy in northern Ghana. In the West African tradition of adhesive nicknames, Pele became Abedi Ayew\u2019s professional title.<\/p>\n
He was Abedi Pele when he won the African Cup of Nations at 17; he was known much more often as Pele than as Abedi Ayew through his Marseilles career and through Serie A and the Bundesliga, where he played in the late-1990s, and when he was elected three times as Africa\u2019s Footballer of the Year.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople asked, \u2018Who is this new Pele?\u2019 \u201d Abedi would reflect. Now 46, he has three sons who have become successful footballers: Dede, Rahim and Jordan. Dede was always likely to draw most attention, being the first-born of a famous love story.<\/p>\n
The courtship of Abedi and the future Mrs Maha Ayew became a Ghanaian Romeo and Juliet \u2014 the groom a provincial would-be footballer, the bride from a wealthy background in the capital, Accra. Maha\u2019s father disapproved of Abedi\u2019s family background and of his job: few African footballers made fortunes in the 1980s; fewer made it big in Europe.<\/p>\n
Gaining Maha\u2019s hand, Abedi jokes, was \u201cthe toughest game of my life. You can say it went to extra time and a penalty shootout\u201d. For the children, the partnership would be stimulating. \u201cI always had two ways of seeing things,\u201d says Dede.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father was from a really poor background. My mother came from a \u2018good\u2019 family. We followed our dad where he played, so learnt about different places and cultures. I wouldn\u2019t say I had everything I wanted, but we had the most important things and parents who helped us grow up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Father and son talk often \u2014 \u201cabout football, but also about life\u201d, says Dede, though he has chosen his journey with a sense of autonomy. Born in France, he was 18 months old when his father reached his first European Cup final in 1991, three when Abedi won the trophy.<\/p>\n
Dede enrolled in the Marseilles youth academy at 16, after what he recalls as an excellent learning period on the hard pitches of west Africa.<\/p>\n
He was eligible to play for two countries. France wanted him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought hard, but growing up in Ghana, and with my dad playing for the Black Stars (as Ghana are known), I always wanted to wear that jersey.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wise choice: in late 2009, Dede led Ghana to the Under-20 World Cup.<\/p>\n
Last July in South Africa, when Ghana came within a shootout of a World Cup semi-final, he was second only to Germany\u2019s Thomas Muller as the tournament\u2019s best young player.<\/p>\n
A week or so later, Dede returned to Marseilles, uncertain of his future. Head coach Didier Deschamps had lent him to second division Arles-Avignon in 2009-10, an apparent snub.<\/p>\n
Abedi Pele turned all pushy parent and rang Deschamps, a former teammate, and asked why. Deschamps said he wanted to see Dede develop. Dede promptly galvanised Arles-Avignon to an unlikely promotion.<\/p>\n
By last June, he was being courted by at least four Premier League clubs, including Arsenal. But Deschamps now wanted Dede back. Wise choice: a broad consensus has Dede as Marseilles\u2019 best outfield player this season.<\/p>\n
And not because he is a chip off the old block. Abedi was a No 10, while Dede prefers central midfield, though he is often posted on the left wing or cutting in, tackling back, wide on the right.<\/p>\n
His idol? You know the answer. His specific role model? Not his dad, who was a flamboyant, attacking footballer, but the former Real Madrid and Argentina midfielder Fernando Redondo.<\/p>\n
I barely need to ask if Dede remembers the moment Redondo turned a Champions League tie in 2000 against Manchester United in Madrid\u2019s favour. \u201cVery clearly: Redondo changes foot, goes past Henning Berg, crosses for a goal. Amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last month, Alex Ferguson watched Marseilles draw with Monaco. He saw Dede Ayew, industrious, composed on the ball, surprisingly mature.<\/p>\n
Ferguson was also surprised to see in the line-up the man with whom Dede shares his Provence home \u2014 Jordan Ayew, 19, Dede\u2019s little brother. Some predict Jordan may turn out the best of all the Pele progeny.<\/p>\n
Source: Sunday Times<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Almost as soon as he could count, Andre Ayew lost track of the times he had watched the goal that won Marseilles the European Cup (now the Uefa Champions League). \u201dIt\u2019s something I grew up with \u2014 the corner coming in; the header,\u201d he says, recalling a cross being met at AC Milan\u2019s near post […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-276321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n