In just a few months, the novel coronavirus has swept through most corners of the world, and Africa is no exception.
During these difficult days, as the flag figures of football in Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon and Senegal, Drogba, Eto'o and Mane are all contacting friends from all walks of life, or paying or contributing to support the anti-epidemic action in the motherland, but the People of Togolese have been slow to see their flag: Emmanuel-Adebayo.
Not only that, Adebayor, who should eat and drink in his villa, also left a cruel sentence:
"Those who say I didn't donate, I'll give you a unified reply now, that is, I don't donate, it's as simple as that."
The people of Togo are naturally quite indignant about this statement, but Adebayor does not care at all about the criticism he has received, and within a few days he showed off the 9 luxury cars in his garage...
"They can compare me to Drogba and Eto'o, but unfortunately I'm not them. I'm Adebayor, and I'll always just do what I think. ”
Adebayor shows off his luxury car to show off his wealth
In this moment of unity of purpose, on the one hand, out of social responsibility, on the other hand, out of the establishment of positive personalities, many stars are willing to contribute their modest efforts, but Adebayor's stubbornness and cold-bloodedness also have their own bitterness: in the past few years, the "relatives" from the motherland have become his lingering nightmares. If there are no such relatives, I was once known as the "little magic beast", and the height of my career may be more than this.
1
Adebayor was born in 1984 in Lomé, the capital of Togo.
In this small African country with a GDP of just over $700 per capita, and even in its capital, there are many slums, and Adebayor grew up there.
"Because the roof was leaking, I had to use a bucket every night before going to bed. There was no electricity, only candle lanterns, no toilets, and the toilets were going to the beach a mile away, and the wind was unbelievably strong. As you can imagine, that's my life.
"We went to the neighbours' house and looked for TV to watch, but I didn't believe the players on the screen were real. After playing abroad, people said they saw me on TV, and I believed that George Weah was real, maybe Zidane was real, and that was football in the eyes of a Togolese kid. ”
Before the age of 4, Adebayor couldn't even walk. His mother took him around fruitlessly until one day a leather ball rolled in front of Adebayor and he stood up miraculously.
"People say to my mother, your son learned to walk because of football, he should be a footballer."
When Adeba was about 6 years old, the eldest brother of the family, Cora, went to Germany, and the whole family hoped that he would change everyone's life, but this hope did not come true. In the words of Adebayor:
"God knows what he's doing in Germany."
Adebayor as a teenager
As a child, Adebayor showed great football talent, so he was invited by Metz to try out in France.
The results of the trial were so good that he was able to stay at the club, when the long-lost big brother Cora appeared and said he wanted to come and see him. Adebayor, who did not have much income, had to borrow money from his teammates, paid for the hotel for his eldest brother, and even had to buy him a plane ticket back to Germany.
"Notice, he's my brother."
In Metz's youth team, Adebayor scored a lot of success and was promoted to the first team at the age of 17. After getting his first salary, he used the money to build a big house for his family, but it became the beginning of a nightmare.
Knowing that he could make money, Cora and Peter's two brothers began to ask him for money, which needed money to do business, and money to get his nephew sick, and the amount was getting bigger and bigger, so big that he even needed a knife to solve it.
"One day when I came back from training, I was very tired and decided to take a nap. I woke up to find a knife in my throat. I opened my eyes and saw that it was my two brothers who were holding the knife. ”
Adebayor with brothers
Unable to bear the enormous mental pressure, Adebayor once attempted suicide.
"There is a pharmacy downstairs from my apartment, I bought pack after bag of medicines, they don't sell me, I say I bought it for a Togolese charity. I was ready, swallowed all the medicine, and I was ready to leave. Then at midnight, I called my best friend goodbye. ”
In the end, it was his friends who rushed him to the hospital and saved Adebayo's life.
Fortunately, the harassment of his family did not affect his performance on the pitch, and with excellent statistics, Monaco took Adebayo under his wing.
Then another story began.
"When I was in Monaco, I thought it was good for the whole family to play football, so I sent my brother Rotimi to a youth camp in France."
Within a few months, Rotimi stole 21 mobile phones, "to know that there are only 27 players in the whole team." With such a terrible incident, Rotimi's football career was over before it even started.
Back at home in Togo, Rotimi stole shirts exchanged between Adebayor and Vivian-Foo, Zidane's signature jerseys, cartier necklaces that Adebayo bought for his mother, old shoes that Adebayo had collected in Monaco that were not worn, and many of Adebayor's purchases from Europe. After stealing it, it is taken to the market and sold.
"The necklace was worth £25,000 and he only sold it for 800 euros."
2
Personality and family affairs aside, Adebayor was at least more contentious than his brothers. After coming to Arsenal from Monaco, he quickly earned Wenger's trust. In the 2007–08 season, he scored 24 Premier League goals, behind C Ronaldo and tied for second with Torres.
However, coming to the More Exposed Premier League has also given Adebayor's relatives a "new income".
Whenever Adebayor couldn't meet the demands of his relatives, they would break the news to the British media such as The Sun in exchange for some rewards. This made Adebayor very distressed, because he was often tired of coping with the media with a greater voice.
The most hyped "witch" incident is the joint masterpiece of the big brother Cora and the British media.
"Adebayo thinks it's his sister and mom who used witchcraft against him, mom is very upset now, every day she's crying, I just called her and she's crying again."
In late 2014, Cora, who was driving a truck in Germany, released a strong message to The Sun, saying that Adebayor had been brainwashed by a "psychiatrist" and mistakenly thought his mother was a "witch", which led to his poor condition.
Just before that, Adebayo's sister Maggie also accused Adebayo of driving her mother out of the house through the "Sun" newspaper and not supporting her mother, "Now my mother can only live on the street by selling plastic bags, padlocks and other small miscellaneous things." ”
Of course, Adebayor denies all the accusations, and it is difficult to know exactly what the facts are.
Adebayor with mother
In 2015, Adebayor, who couldn't bear it, published a thousand-word article on his Facebook, shaking out all the "blood and tears" he had suffered from his relatives.
In Adebayor's description, his mother, two older brothers Cora and Peter, younger brother Rothimi, and younger sister Lucia all become his white-eyed wolves. In the article, he mentioned that he had held a family meeting in 2005 in the hope that his family would understand him more, but the result of the meeting was unacceptable to him:
"They said I should buy a house for each person in my family and pay regularly every month."
Exposing such a family ugliness caused Adebayor a lot of trouble, and had to leave the team in the middle of the season to go home to deal with things, and finally Spurs were overwhelmed, preferring to continue to pay wages and choose to negotiate with him to terminate the contract.
To force Levi into this position, there is no one but Adebayor.
When he played for Real Madrid on loan in 2010-11, togolese was popular in the dressing room and Mourinho wanted to keep him in the team, but this did not happen, thanks to Adebayo's family:
"My eldest brother Cora wrote a letter to Real Madrid in the name of the Adebayor family, saying that I should not stay at Real Madrid and did not recommend that Real Madrid sign me. I'm not saying that's the main reason why I didn't qualify for Real Madrid, but at least it's a certain percentage, even if it's only 10%, it's a big percentage. ”
3
Adebayor, who has turned 36, is still playing and just joined Paraguayan side Olympia in February for the highest salary in the league.
In late 2017, he adopted the son of his brother Peter, "I will treat him as my own and let him be my eldest son." ”
If he still wants to make money, it seems that he can play for a while longer – just a month after joining the new owner, he has made a lot of media headlines for a martial arts-like foul move. Judging from the degree of stretching of the movements, his physical condition seems to be very good.
Adebayor kicks his opponent
For Adebayor, creating controversy has long been commonplace. After the famous 100-meter slide in 2009, he became a traitor hated by Arsenal fans.
"Arsenal fans are shouting: Your mom is a prostitute, your dad is washing elephants. How else can I respond except slip on my knees? My voice is no match for so many fans. ”
However, despite a number of insults such as Judas, Slacker, and Money Lover, Adebayor still has a more successful career than most players.
According to the German transfer market, he played in 587 games for different teams before joining Olympia Paraguay, contributing 205 goals and 67 assists.
And don't forget, Adebayor also won the African Footballer of the Year, in 2008, when Both Drogba and Eto'o were in their prime.
It is difficult for African players to go particularly well in their careers, on the one hand, because they cannot get a professional and good education during their youth, and on the other hand, they cut through the messy family relationships.
"In another 3-4 years, my career will be over, but my troubles will never end because my last name dooms me to be inseparable from those people."
Not only Adebayor, but Also Alexander-Song, who has also left a presence at Arsenal, is 33 years old this year and is still playing football. Not long ago, because he did not want to take a pay cut, and the Swiss grasshopper team completed an agreement, the reason for not wanting to reduce salary is also very simple, because he also has a large family to raise (legend has more than 400 people).
Adebayor organizes children's charity events in his hometown
And that's the fate of many African players, as Adebayor said:
"When a family is poor, people will block the bullets for you; but once a person is developed, it is as if he owes everyone money."
"To understand me, you have to see my hometown of Togo."