End of a wild exceptional career
Next PL dismissal!
Anne Kamphausen
The Togolese legend striker Emmanuel Adebayor announces the end of his sporting career at the age of 39 and turns his back on football. His career has been marked by many changes of club and heavy headlines.
Emmanuel Adebayor has announced his retirement from football, ending a 22-year football career. In addition to many changes of club, he is remembered for family drama, suicidal thoughts, a robbery and his penchant for luxury goods, among other things.
Adebayor spent most of his time scoring in England. The 39-year-old played for Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur, among others – but also for Real Madrid. He reached his highest market value of 25 million euros in 2009 at Arsenal and in 2012 at City.
Adebayor officially posted a statement on Instagram about his retirement and explained that he was looking forward to the next phase of his life. “From the highs to the lows, my career as a professional athlete has been an incredible journey,” he said. Special thanks go to his fans, who “accompanied him every step of the way.”
Adebayor followed up against Arsenal
The striker, who was born in Togo, has been playing for AC Semassi FC in his home country since July 2021, where he also played professionally for the first time. During his career, the right-footed player played 593 games and was directly involved in a total of 272 goals. In addition, Adebayor ran for the national team of Togo, with which he took part in the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
His sporting career was marked by many changes and some discrepancies. For example, he left no good hair on his former Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger. Instead, he praised his nemesis Jose Mourinho to the skies.
“Mourinho is a coach that I love and will always love,” Adebayor explained in the Mirror adding: “He’s the most honest coach I’ve met in my career. That’s crazy, because most coaches are wrong.” A tip against Wenger.
He accused the Arsenal icon of pushing him out of the club in 2009: “He said I had to move on. I said I’ll stay.” The coach then replied: “No, we won’t fight for you either. Either you go, or you stay and won’t play another game.”
Ultimately, the then 25-year-old moved to Manchester City. “Then he said that I had followed the call of big money and therefore wanted to leave London. That was the day my hatred of Arsenal started,” said Adebayor.
Villa, luxury bodies and own band
The former star striker is known for his luxurious lifestyle, made possible by his footballing skills. Africa’s Footballer of the Year 2008 recently presented his property in a video.
In addition to his own logo, which adorns the spacious villa, he provides insights into his collection of luxury cars and his pool landscape. The property is a reminder of “hard work, discipline and faith,” he wrote. “May my story inspire you to never give up on your dreams, no matter how big they seem,” said the 242-time Premier League player.
However, his high standards became his undoing when he met Olympique Lyon’s then-coach Bruno Genesio for an “interview” in 2016. Adebayor is said to be loud The Team have requested a villa with pool and sea view. There the well-known chef Joël Robuchon should have cooked for him.
He also asked for a helicopter to take him to training at the club’s expense. Genesio further reported that he wanted a shot of whiskey in his coffee and smoked during the conversation.
In addition to his achievements, the Togolese national record scorer also showed where he comes from and gives an insight into the training facility where he played football as a youth. A combination that seems to delight his 1.5 million Instagram followers.
Mother wanted to curse him with magic trick
Adebayor has repeatedly drawn attention to himself with negative reports in the past. During his time with the Hotspurs, for example, he had to deal with a family dispute that bothered him so much that he had thoughts of suicide and took a sporting break.
There were similar incidents during his time at AS Monaco. He would have been threatened by his brothers Peter and Kola. They are said to have put a knife to his neck because he refused to pay them any money.
“Many times I wanted to give up. Asks my sister Iyabo Adebayor how many times I’ve called her ready to commit suicide. I have kept this story secret for years,” Adebayor wrote.
“But if I killed myself, no one would know my story and no one could learn from it. Some say I should keep these stories to myself, but someone has to sacrifice themselves and talk about it,” he said.
Adebayor reported systematic exploitation within the family for years. Brothers called him regularly to get their bills paid. Adebayor financed her children’s education anyway.
But that’s not all: his mother is said to have tried to curse him with magic powers and his sister secretly sublet a $1.2 million house in Togo that Adebayor had bought for her. He was also sure: “They have already divided all my possessions among themselves in case I die.”
Attack with several injuries
One of the worst experiences of his career was the attack on the Togo national team bus just two days before the start of the Africa Cup of Nations 2010 in Angola. The footballers came under machine gun fire on the border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the host country. Several players were injured and the driver died.
Adebayor, himself unharmed, said the attack was “one of the worst things I’ve ever experienced in my life.” He had to carry his screaming team-mates to the hospital.
With the end of Adebayor’s sporting career, a long, turbulent career with countless events came to an end that not only shaped his story positively. It is to be hoped that things will calm down over the next few years.
