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Togolese football star Emmanuel Adebayor rarely makes sense.
On September 10, 2008, then playing for Arsenal, he refused to board a plane with the rest of his Togolese national team mates for a World Cup qualifier match against Zambia in Lusaka.
The reason? He said he had heard rumours that the plane was going to crash. How? He had learnt that the Togo FA president Tata Avlessi Adagio de Mass, whom he had clashed with on numerous occasions, was not going to be in the flight. “My life is very dear to me and if we have to go down we'll all go down together with the president,” he was quoted saying.
He played for Arsenal for three years from 2006 to 2009 before signing for Manchester City for a fee of £25 million (Sh3.3 billion). That season he swapped London’s red for Manchester’s blue will be remembered for his famous (or is it infamous goal?) celebration for City in their 4-2 English Premier League victory over Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium.
The feisty Togolese ran the length of the pitch to the stand occupied by visiting Arsenal fans to celebrate his goal right in front of the fuming mass.
Whether he did this to acquaint himself well with his new City supporters or was just sticking it in on his old Arsenal supporters, only he knows. What we know, Adebayor was booked for that iconic celebration and slapped with a fine.
He later apologised but said he felt “untouchable” at the time and would have done it again, fine or no fine. Ten years later he trolled the passionate, long-suffering Arsenal fans with an Instagram post of him running to celebrate that goal at Etihad. Needless to say, the Gunners went ballistic.
Then in November 2014 he made an astonishing accusation that his own mother and family were practicing witchcraft on him. The family countered that he had kicked his mother out of the home he built for them and that he had been “brainwashed” by Islamic spiritual healers to believe that his poor form on the football pitch was due to black magic being practiced on him.
Last month Adebayor, who at one time used to earn £680,000 (about Sh88.9 million) per month, hit out at people asking why he was not, like other football stars, making any contribution in his home country to help in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. “I did not bring coronavirus to Togo,” he retorted.
And just two weeks ago, Adebayor reportedly criticised Confederation of African Football over their annual Africa Player of the Year (POTY) awards.
The Togolese football star is quoted saying that the Liverpool duo Mane and Salah shouldn’t have won the Africa award. That it should be given to players based in the continent, notwithstanding the fact he won the award in 2008 while playing for Arsenal.
Adebayor is later quoted denying he made such comments.
Be that as it may, this got me thinking. Why should Caf, year in year, out give their POTY award to a player based in Europe?
In fact, since Caf started conferring the African Player of the Year award in 1992, all the winners have been, with no exception, players plying their trade in Europe. For good measure, all the top three award winners each year have been players from European clubs apart from 2008 when the first runner up was won by Mohammed Aboutrika of Egypt’s Al Ahly.
Should Caf's awards not be promoting and recognising players based in Africa, plying in the leagues of the continent? Should not selection criteria be based on how much a player has contributed to his team in the African club competitions, the Africa Cup of Nations and promotion of the game on the continent?
It reminds me of the year 2012 and how the Western press went gaga over Barcelona striker Lionel Messi’s record breaking feat when he scored the most goals in a calendar year, hitting in 91 in 2012.
But Zambians said, wait a minute, our very own Godfrey Chitalu (of Kabwe Warriors) scored 107 goals in all competitions in 1972.
Caf should have verified and loudly pushed this for official recognition. They did not.
Adebayor, if you called out Caf, you made a lot of sense.
