Emmanuel Adebayor

Sheyi Emmanuel Adebayor (born 26 February 1984) is a Togolese former professional footballer who played as a striker.

During his career, he played for English clubs Arsenal, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and Crystal Palace, as well as French side Metz, Monégasque team Monaco, Spanish team Real Madrid, Turkish clubs İstanbul Başakşehir and Kayserispor, Paraguay's Club Olimpia and Togolese club Semassi.

Adebayor was spotted playing for Sporting Club de Lomé by scouts from Metz, who brought him to France in 1999.

He made his Ligue 1 debut against Sochaux on 17 November 2001.

Following Metz's relegation, he played a season in Ligue 2, where 13 goals in 34 league matches prompted a summer 2003 move to Monaco.

He featured nine times in Europe as Monaco reached the 2004 UEFA Champions League final against Porto in Gelsenkirchen, for which he was an unused substitute in his club's 3–0 loss.

Adebayor represented the Togo national team at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, the country's debut, and to date only, appearance at the World Cup.

On 13 January 2006, Premier League club Arsenal signed Adebayor for a reported £3 million.

He was given the nickname "Baby Kanu" due to his resemblance to former Arsenal star Nwankwo Kanu, whom Adebayor had idolised as a youth.

On 4 February 2006, Adebayor made his Arsenal debut in a Premier League match at Birmingham City and scored after 21 minutes, with Arsenal winning 2–0.

Adebayor was cup-tied for Arsenal's run to the 2006 UEFA Champions League Final.

Adebayor scored Arsenal's winning goal against Manchester United to give Arsenal a 1–0 win at Old Trafford, their first league win of the 2006–07 season.

Earlier in the match, Adebayor was brought down in the six-yard box to earn Arsenal a penalty, which was taken by Gilberto Silva and saved.

Adebayor was sent off in the 2007 League Cup final which Arsenal lost 2–1 to Chelsea.

He was shown a red card after a fracas towards the end of the match involving both Chelsea and Arsenal players.

It was alleged that he had thrown a punch at Frank Lampard.

The FA subsequently gave him an additional one-match ban and a fine of £7,500 for failing to leave the field of play immediately, as well as a three-match ban for the red card.

Adebayor and Lampard both denied it.

On 15 September 2007, Adebayor's two goals against Tottenham Hotspur helped Arsenal win 3–1 in the first North London derby of the season.

Adebayor then scored his first hat-trick for Arsenal in a 5–0 home win against Derby County on 22 September; this was the second-ever hat-trick scored at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium.

He was involved in a controversial incident on 22 January in which he clashed with teammate Nicklas Bendtner seven minutes from the end of a 5–1 League Cup semi-final defeat to Tottenham.

Bendtner appeared to cut his nose in the clash, for which Adebayor apologised the following day.

Adebayor's second goal against Tottenham won Match of the Day's Goal of the Season competition for the 2007–08 season.

He was voted African Footballer of the Year for 2008 while playing at Arsenal, and during his latter career, when he joined Olimpia Asunción in 2020, he became the highest paid player in Paraguay.

He was also awarded the BBC African Footballer of the Year for his performance in 2008.

In the 2008 summer transfer window, he was linked with £30 million moves to Milan and Barcelona, but later signed a new long-term contract at Arsenal.

On 13 September 2008, Adebayor scored a hat trick in Arsenal's 4–0 win away to Blackburn Rovers, scoring his first league goals of the 2008–09 season.

Adebayor received his first red card of the season in a 1–1 draw with Liverpool after an altercation with opposing defender Álvaro Arbeloa; this was his second bookable offence of the game and therefore served a one-match ban.

On 8 February, Adebayor suffered a hamstring injury in Arsenal's 0–0 draw against Tottenham.

The injury would keep him out for almost two months, despite initial estimations suggesting only a three-week absence.

He made a goalscoring return to action, scoring a brace on his return against Manchester City.

In January 2010, Adebayor was one of the players involved when the Togo team's bus came under gunfire on the way to the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations in Angola, after which he retired from national team duty.

Three days later, he scored the 100th goal at the Emirates during the side's 3–0 FA Cup victory over Newcastle United.

Starting on 4 March against Milan, Adebayor went on a goalscoring streak in the Champions League.

Despite having never scored before in the competition, he scored a goal in the second leg against Milan at the San Siro.

On 28 April, Adebayor scored his second hat-trick for Arsenal after coming off the bench at half time in a 6–2 victory against Derby County, making him the only player in Premier League history to score a hat-trick home and away against the same side in the same season.

Although Arsenal finished the season empty handed, he was named in the PFA Team of the Year.

In 2013, he returned to the Togo team for the 2013 African Cup of Nations in South Africa, where he helped them to qualify for the quarter-finals.

He is Togo's all-time top goalscorer with 32 goals.

Born in Lomé to parents of Yoruba ethnicity, Adebayor spent most of his youth in Togo, where he attended the Centre de Développement Sportif de Lomé (English: Sports Development Centre of Lomé), also known as Sporting Club de Lomé.