Football: Togolese striker Emmanuel Adebayor officilalizes his retirement at 39 years old

Reuters/Thomas Mukoya

Text by: RFI Follow

3 min

Away from the lawn for more than two years, the striker and captain of Togo Emmanuel Adbayor announced this Monday, March 20 his retirement at 39 years. He will remain as one of the greatest African players of the 2000s.

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He is a true legend of African football who puts away his cleats definitively, almost three years after a last adventure that turned short with the Paraguayan club of Olimpo. Born in Lomé of Nigerian parents, Emmanuel Adebayor revealed himself to the general public in the jersey of FC Metz, his training club. After a remarkable spell in Monaco, he played for prestigious clubs on the European continent: Arsenal, Manchester City, Real Madrid and Tottenham.

In nearly 20 years of professional career, he scored more than 200 goals, including 32 with the Togo national team. Archetype of the modern centre-forward, Emmanuel Adebayor shone by his physical presence in front of goal and his header, but also by his ability to play as a pivot, in the service of his teammates.

"There have been ups and downs. There were regrets"

Elected African player of the year by CAF in 2008, Adebayor has been the soul of Togo, practically from his debut in the national team, on July 8, 2000, at the age of 16, to his last match against Benin (1-2) in March 2019 in the qualifiers of CAN 2022. His reaction on RFI after this defeat that eliminated the Sparrowhawks had the appearance of farewell. "I started the selection in 2000. It's 2019. I've been with the national team for almost 19 years. That's a lot. It's beautiful. There have been highs. There have been lows. There were regrets. There were unforgettable moments. Now I think I'm going to go home. I'm going to have all the good times. I will put them in a bag. [...] I did everything I could to keep the jersey this afternoon. And, if it is the end of a cycle, so be it. The most important thing is that I keep the shorts, jersey and socks. I promised my daughter, now 8 years old, that my last club jersey and the one in the national team would be for her. I think she must have already sent me a message: 'Dad, what about the jersey?' ».

His great feat was to qualify his small country, Togo (56,785 km2, 8 million inhabitants), to its first and only World Cup in 2006. He was also part of the game when the Sparrowhawks reached the first round of an AFCON for the first time in their history in 2013 in South Africa.

History thwarted with the CAN

But Emmanuel Adebayor's history with Africa's most prestigious competition remains somewhat turbulent. For his first participation in the CAN 2006, is dismissed by his coach Stephen Keshi who judges him in misshapen. Adebayor did not play the first match against the DRC. He almost came to blows with his coach on the bus that brought them back to the hotel after the defeat against the Congolese (2-0). A few weeks later, some see his hand in the dismissal of Stephen Keshi.

In 2010, he was, with the selection, the victim of an attack on the Angolan border. The bus of the Sparrowhawks is machine-gunned by the rebels of the enclave of Cabinda: two dead. Traumatized, Adebayor and Togo left the competition before the start. The Togolese striker retired from international football before reversing his decision two years later.

This time, the curtain has definitely fallen on the career of the Sparrowhawk who hovered over African football in the company of Samuel Eto'o and Didier Drogba.

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• Togo
• Diaspora African players
• Football
• Sports
• CAN