Kwame Ayew, the younger brother of the legendary Abedi Ayew Pele, has opened up on venturing into the ministry of God after retiring from football.

The 49-year-old endured a graceful career that spanned over a decade and a half and was capped 25 times by Ghana.

He played for clubs across France, Italy, Portugal and Turkey, including Metz, Lecce, Sporting CP and Boavista.

Ayew retired in 2007 with over club 300 appearances to his name and immediately started preaching the word of Jesus Christ.
In a documentary discussing his faith, the former Ghana international said he used to play football but has now swapped sport for winning souls for Christ.

“I played football as a soccer player but now I strike for Jesus Christ. I was born in absolute poverty and it was difficult for my mom and dad to make ends meet,” Ayew said.

“Daily life was a struggle. My vision was to become a medical doctor but two men walked to where I live with a proposal. They’ve seen me play with my school and they were gonna give me 10,000 cedis. At that time I had never even handled 100cedis so 10,000 sounded very enticing. So I agreed to do it.

“People started hearing of me all over Africa partly because of my elder brother, Abedi Ayew Pele. He had already made it so people wanted to see if I was as good as him so all the attention was on me.”

He added: “I wasn’t born to play football, I was born for football to help me to a certain level. Football has put me on a stage that attracts people like a magnet to hear the word of God which is life.

“My faith in Christ affected me as a footballer. One other way it affected me was to look at people. This led me to adopt six children. I live with four in this house and there are so many people I help.”

Ayew scored nine goals for the Black Stars and was part of the Ghana squad that won bronze at the 1992 Summer Olympics.

Source: Ghana/Sompaonline.com/Nana Yaw Boamah