(CNN) -- He was just a young boy -- long before he became one of Africa's all-time football greats and racked up trophies in Europe's top competitions -- when Abedi Ayew first heard people comparing him with arguably the game's best player -- Brazil's Edson Arantes do Nascimento, also known as Pele. Yet, there was just one problem for the young Abedi, who grew up in a poor Ghanaian village and shared a home with his 18 siblings. He didn't know who Pele was. "You imagine that we don't have access to televisions, we don't have lights in our villages; we were closed in the very small village so we didn't have access to all these things," he explains.
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Abedi "Pele" Ayew is a Ghanaian football legend
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His skills on the field garnered him the nickname of arguably the game's greatest player
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He helped lead Olympique de Marseilles to its first ever European championship in 1993
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The attacking midfielder was also captain of Ghana's national team for six years
Like his namesake, the Ghanaian "@placeholder" displayed a nimble athleticism on the pitch, dazzling defenders with his spectacular technique and blistering pace.