Emmanuel Adebayor, who left his mark on an era, will play his testimonial match in Togo and retire from football after having played for major clubs such as Real Madrid, Manchester City, and Arsenal.
This legendary footballer, who helped his country qualify for the World Cup for the first time, will be honored in a ceremony after his testimonial, with African football legends Samuel Eto’o, Jay-Jay Okocha, and the Toure brothers in attendance.
According to Adebayor, the armed attacks he witnessed during his childhood and while playing for the Togo national team were turning points in his career. In an interview with BBC Africa, Adebayor shared that he could not walk until the age of five and that his family took him to a spiritual leader in Ghana. His first time walking began when he ran after a football.
“As soon as I saw the ball, I started running to it,” he said. “It was a moment of deliverance, with everybody shouting ‘He’s walking, he’s walking!’. Everybody was so happy, and whenever my mother told that story, she always cried.”
Adebayor’s relationship with football began that day. He started his career in his hometown of Togo, where he was discovered by Monaco scouts. The legendary footballer spent three years in France and then transferred to Arsenal, a moment he referred to as one of the happiest of his life.
“My idol was Nwankwo Kanu, so signing for Arsenal – wearing his number 25 jersey and using the same locker as him – is, for me, a huge accomplishment,” he said. “Today, he is my big brother, my best friend, and advises me if I’m doing right or wrong.”
His form rose so high that in 2008 he became the best footballer in Africa. This made him the first and only player in Togo’s history to win this award. After his transfer to Manchester City, Adebayor was criticized in the media for over-celebrating a goal against Arsenal. He was later fined as well.
Adebayor’s transfer to Arsenal in 2006 coincided with Togo’s first-ever appearance in the World Cup. Togo, which even surpassed Senegal, a team that reached the quarter-finals in the previous World Cup, owed much of its success to Adebayor, who scored 11 goals in the qualifiers. However, things did not always go well.
In the 2008 tournament, Togo did not achieve much success. In 2010, the Togo team bus was attacked by separatist rebels, and two people lost their lives. Today, Adebayor sums up his life philosophy with this sentence: “Helping a human is better than scoring a goal.”
