Editorial

Goal.com Profile: Emmanuel Adebayor

Goal.com looks at the maligned Togolese target man who has swapped the traditional red and white of north London for the nouveau-riche sky blue of Manchester City...

Jul 20, 2009 11:00:00 AM

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Emmanuel Adebayor - Arsenal (PA)

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Sheyi Emmanuel Adebayor

Full Name: Emmanuel 'Sheyi' Adebayor
Date Of Birth: February 26, 1984 [25]
Place Of Birth: Lome, Togo
Nationality: Togolese
Height: 6'3'' [1.91m]
Weight: 75kgs [165lbs]
International Caps: 38 caps/ 16 goals
Clubs: Sporting Club de Lome, Metz, Monaco, Arsenal, Manchester City.

A number of Arsenal players are beginning to leave Ashburton Grove under a looming cloud of acrimony. Lassana Diarra departed for pastures Pompey as he searched for first-team football that he could have witnessed at N5 had he hung around for an extra half-year, but the prospect of losing a place in France's Euro 2008 squad niggled away at the defence-minded midfielder. Mathieu Flamini, a tireless midfield engine, seemed to re-enact a similar escape clause to the one plotted at his former club Marseille; according to then-manager Jose Anigo, he committed "beautiful treason". The Frenchman's move to AC Milan, like his switch to Arsenal, was the result of a free transfer, and one that riled Gunners fans, and that is without even mentioning Ashley Cole...

Emmanuel Adebayor, too, will not be as fondly remembered at the Emirates as the man he was asked to replace - Thierry Henry - or even the men who have found employment elsewhere while Ade shouldered the goal-scoring burden: Gilberto, Fredrik Ljungberg... even mad Jens Lehmann has developed a bit of a cult-hero status. The Togolese target man effectively began transfer negotiations with an alternative club last summer, after the hype following his 30-goal haul at the back-end of the 2007/08 season was in full swing, and the player's (and agent's) ambiguous interviews suggested an extended stay, only for a later statement to nullify such notions.

On the pitch, though, Adebayor remains one of the toughest opponents to mark, and opposition defenders often cite the unpredictability of Manu's movement as the primary cause for such a claim. What he lacks in touch and control, he more than makes up for with searing pace, and while his critics require no second invitation to point to an accumulation of missed opportunities, it should be heavily stressed that he can brag a similar goals to shots ratio to Fernando Torres' 1 in 4.2. He has a strong head, and while he isn't trying to round off an instigative bout of box-play, he can be found drifting wide (commonly to the left flank) where he will try to thread an on-the-floor assist onto an incoming forward.

Adebay-roar | Celebrating goal-scoring success

Adebayor left his homeland, Togo, as a raw 15-year-old product. He had been schooled by Sporting Club de Lome, where he made only a fistful of first-team appearances before following the footsteps of Richmond Forson - a fellow Togo international and former Lome alumnus - at French league side FC Metz. The Metz scouts had studied Manu while in west Africa, and after leaving a strong impression he was brought in on trial. In his second season, he struck 17 times in 35 appearances; a rate he was to consistently equal - if not beat - to this day. A switch to the south of the country, Monaco, beckoned following his 1:2 second season, and the highlight of Adebayor's three-year coastal sojourn was a ten-game Champions League stretch where he aided Les Rouge et Blanc's march to the final having scored twice. However, he was benched for the concluding game against eventual 3-0 winners Porto.

During the winter window of 2006, Arsene Wenger pounced and lured the Togolese target man to the Gunners where, due to his leggy frame and African heritage, he was labelled as the next Nwankwo Kanu. He was unveiled as part of a triple-pronged transfer assault, where the club were clearly making public knowledge their intent of building for the future as Theo Walcott (labelled the next Thierry Henry), and Abou Diaby (dubbed the next Patrick Vieira), also followed suit.

At Arsenal, Adebayor proved that he could rise to the occasion, and in his first full season in north London he had already scored as many goals at Old Trafford as Henry had during the entirety of his accolade-laden career. Sheyi, though, grabbed a winner - the sole goal of the game. Slaying one of the club's modern foes on that day was not to be the highlight of his adversary battles, though, as he also shares the honour of being the club's top goal-scorer in the north London derby, against Lilywhite side Tottenham Hotspur. The 25-year-old has scored an incredible eight goals against Spurs, and shares top spot along with Alan Sunderland and Robert Pires, although Adebayor required less games to achieve that feat.

The 2007/08 season was to be Adebayor's year. He scored 30 goals in all competitions (24 in the Premier League), bagged two hat-tricks, reached a half-century of goals for the club, scored a double-deuce in a single match for Togo, and attracted admiring glances from continental heavyweights Barcelona and Milan.

Upon penning a new £80,000 per week contract, doubling his previous salary, the fans were sceptical despite the player's protestations that his dalliance was not due to unashamed flirtations with foreign clubs. He pledged his allegiance to the Gunners, saying, "Arsenal put me where I am today. They made me one of the biggest strikers in the world. I have to pay them back. How am I going to pay them back? Make them win trophies."

Now, Adebayor has joined Manchester City's big money revolution for a fee of around £25 million, insisting that the fat wage package on offer was not the deciding factor. "I am here because I was impressed by the way the chairman at City spoke to me about the ambition of this club. I want to be part of a club that is aiming to be one of the biggest in the world."

There's plenty of time for 25-year-old Ade and City to become the biggest in the world, but first he must start producing his top form at will, rather than fleetingly.

HONOURS

Monaco

Champions League runner up: 2003/04

Arsenal

League Cup runner up: 2006/07

Individual

BBC African Footballer of the Year: 2007
Goal of the season: 2007/08
African Player of the Year: 2008
Togo Player of the Year: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008

Alan Dawson, Goal.com

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