The enigma that is Ade
Adebayor is every coach’s dream player because of his work ethic and penchant to score spectacular goals. AGENCIES PHOTO
What you need to know:
The fatal attack, in which all the players survived but three other people were killed, led to Togo withdrawing from the tournament and invited a Caf ban.
KAMPALA- It’s almost impossible to broadly dismiss a striker for scoring 24 goals in 32 League games for Arsenal - as he did in the 2007-08 season. Emmanuel Adebayor was.
Another 14 in 26 games for Man City! Still no applause came the way of the Togolese forward. No favours came his way as public fallout with coach Roberto Mancini followed.
“Sometimes when I was in Manchester I wasn’t in the squad while knowing that I’m much better than some of them,” Adebayor said in an interview with Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper.
“He put me on for the last 15 seconds or 30 seconds,” said Adebayor. “So I told him, “listen, I’m not a 16-year-old boy. If you don’t want to play me, don’t play me.
“But the respect I have for you, please have the minimum respect back for me. Don’t play me for the last 15 seconds anymore.
“Then he got frustrated, saying “how can you speak to me, I’m the manager”. From that day everything went bad, and he was not speaking to me anymore.”
It’s a war Adebayor could have won in the court of public opinion as Mancini would later admit it was a mistake to loan the striker to Tottenham.
A quiet spell at Real Madrid offers hardly any memories except a hat trick in an 8-1 drubbing of Alemria as a ‘galactico’.
The drama restarted the moment he chose to sign for North Londoners permanently in 2012. He fell out with coach Andre Villas Boas and was relegated to the youth team.
Boas’ sacking reinstated Adebayor to the Spurs team. He went on to finish as top scorer with 14.
Though “tall, skilful, strong in the air and with the ability to score and create,” everyone doubts Adebayor’s temperament – a cross between skill and lunacy.
Playing for Togo offers the real drama of Adebayor, now 30. The striker was also eligible to play for Nigeria but chose to represent the country of his birth, leading them to a maiden World Cup in 2006 and winning the Africa Player of the Year award in 2008.
In Germany, however, the Togo squad and manager Otto Pfitser threatened to refuse to fulfill the fixture and take strike action.
During every other campaign or after every tournament, he retires from the national team only to return as a cleansed soul ready to do the job his country.
At the 2006 Afcon, Adebayor vowed to leave the tournament and return home, although he later resumed training with the side. Togo were eliminated after losing all three matches.
He was dropped by Togo following the row over bonus payments. And retired thereafter. But, Adebayor was brought back into the Togo team in September 2007.
On 8 January 2010, Adebayor was one of the players involved when the Togo national team’s bus came under a gunfire attack on the way to the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola.
The fatal attack, in which all the players survived but three other people were killed, led to Togo withdrawing from the tournament and invited a Caf ban.
Adebayor consequently announced his retirement from international football on 12 April 2010 in a statement which read, “I have weighed up my feelings in the weeks and months since the attack and I am still haunted by the events which I witnessed on that horrible afternoon on the Togo team bus.”
“We were just footballers going to play a football match and represent our country, yet we were attacked by people who wanted to kill us all. It is a moment I will never forget and one I never want to experience again.”
Adebayor subsequently returned to international duty in November 2011 following assurances from the Togo Football Federation regarding safety.
He is neither here nor there, something should worry as his decision making on the pitch mirrors his life off it. “I’ve never doubted myself because I know what I am capable of,” Adebayor said.
ADEBAYOR AT A GLANCE
Full name: Sheyi Emmanuel Adebayor
Date of birth: 26 February 1984 (age 30)
Place of birth: Lomé, Togo
Height: 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Playing position: Forward
Goals for Togo: 29 in 53 games
SENIOR CAREER
2001–2003: Metz
2003–2006: Monaco
2006–2009: Arsenal
2009–2012: Manchester City
2011: Real Madrid (loan)
2011–2012: Tottenham Hotspur (loan)
2012 - todate: Tottenham Hotspur
