‘Helping a human is better than scoring a goal’ – Adebayor

After a career spanning two decades which saw him represent some of the world’s biggest clubs, Emmanuel Adebayor will mark the end of his playing days with a testimonial in Togo on Sunday.

Legendary names of both African and European football, including Samuel Eto’o, Jay-Jay Okocha and the Toure brothers, will be in Lome for a weekend of celebrations for a man who helped his West African nation to its first, and to date only, Fifa World Cup appearance.

Adebayor now wants to help the next generation in his homeland accomplish more, motivated by both his own childhood and the horrific 2010 gun attack on the Togo team.

“It’s now I realise that helping a human being is even better than scoring a beautiful goal in the Premier League or Champions League,” the 40-year-old said.

In an exclusive interview with BBC Sport Africa, the striker reflects on the key moments of his career.

For the first few years of his life, Adebayor’s parents were troubled by his inability to walk, despite being otherwise healthy.

Still only crawling when he was five, his family found their way to spiritual leaders in neighbouring Ghana, who insisted the problem could be fixed through intense prayer.

One Sunday, a football from a nearby game bounced into the church where pastors were praying over the young Adebayor.

“As soon as I saw the ball, I started running to it,” he said.

“It was a moment of deliverance, with everybody shouting ‘He’s walking, he’s walking!’. Everybody was so happy and whenever my mother told that story, she always cried.”

An indelible relationship with the sport had begun.

After being plucked from Togo by French club Metz, Adebayor spent nearly three seasons at Monaco before joining Arsenal in January 2006.

Nearly 20 years on, he calls the move the second favourite moment of his career.

“My idol was Nwankwo Kanu so signing for Arsenal – wearing his number 25 jersey and using the same locker as him – is, for me, a huge accomplishment,” he said.

“Today, he is my big brother, my best friend and advises me if I’m doing right or wrong.”

Adebayor’s form with the Gunners in 2008 played a major part in him becoming the first – and only – Togolese to be crowned African Footballer of the Year.

“In 2008, I was unplayable,” he said.

“To be recognised as Africa’s best player was huge – it is something I will never forget and never take for granted.”

Yet his relationship with the north London club soured after he moved to Manchester City and ran the length of the pitch to celebrate a goal in front of Arsenal fans in 2009.

Adebayor apologised afterwards, saying the “emotion took over” him, and was later fined £25,000 ($32,300) and handed a two-match ban.

The same year as his move to Highbury, Togo made their only World Cup appearance – becoming Africa’s smallest nation to contest the finals.

Adebayor scored an unsurpassed 11 goals in qualifying as the Sparrowhawks finished above 2002 World Cup quarter-finalists Senegal.

“Even today, we the actors try to explain it to ourselves but cannot,” he said.

“We really don’t know what happened in those years, and what gave us the confidence to be as strong as we were. It was unbelievable.”

Nigerian coach Stephen Keshi oversaw Togo’s qualification but was replaced before the World Cup after a poor 2006 Africa Cup of Nations, marked by a spectacular falling out with Adebayor.

Togo’s campaign in Germany was one to forget, with the side losing every game and threatening a boycott in a bonus row, but simply reaching the tournament was a huge feat.

After missing out on the 2008 Nations Cup, returning at the 2010 edition should have been a dream.

Instead, it was an unimaginable nightmare.

On 8 January 2010, Togo’s team bus was attacked by separatist rebels as it travelled through the enclave of Cabinda in host nation Angola.

The Togolese delegation was targeted by gunfire for over half an hour, leaving two dead and a host of unwanted memories for those who survived.

“Sometimes you can be in your home cinema watching a movie, or somewhere when somebody drops something – which has that similar sound to gunshot – and you remember what happened in 2010,” Adebayor said.

“I’m a big fan of action movies. I still watch them but it’s difficult.

“Sometimes you see people shooting a bus and it takes you straight back.”

Despite spells across Europe and a brief stint in Paraguay, Togo’s record scorer won just one trophy – the Copa del Rey with Real Madrid in 2011.

That triumph was achieved by a star-studded side including Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos and Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored the winner against Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona.

“There is a video out there of me dancing in the dressing room with Pepe and Sergio,” Adebayor said.

“Some players who don’t have half of my talent have won a World Cup, but my target is not to regret.

“I’m happy about my career. If I was asked to do it one more time, I would.”

Adebayor played under Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho and Didier Deschamps among others, but says it was a manager with the briefest of careers who got the best out of him.

Andre Villas-Boas had frozen Adebayor out at Tottenham but Tim Sherwood brought him back into the fold when he took charge in in December 2013.

“The first meeting (Sherwood) had with the first team, he said ‘My talisman will be Emmanuel Adebayor, everything will go through Adebayor. Penalty taker – Adebayor’,” the striker recalls.

On his first club start in seven months, he scored against West Ham in Sherwood’s first game to begin a run of 11 goals in 14 matches.

“After the game, we had a one-hour phone call where he told me how brilliant I was, how he counted on me and that no matter what happened he was 100% behind me,” he said.

“When your boss is telling you that, the rest is easy. Up until today, we still chat. That’s beautiful.”

Since quitting football, Adebayor has invested most of his time on the SEA (Sheyi Emmanuel Adebayor) Foundation he set up just over a decade ago.

His inspiration came from his own experience of having to drop out of school when his parents could not afford the fees (roughly $25 or £19 per term) and by the attack in Angola which made him realise “anything can stop at any given moment”.

With the United Nations and French Development Agency among its partners, the foundation sponsors hundreds of children to improve in areas ranging from STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) to agricultural entrepreneurship.

“When you impact on somebody’s life, it’s not just one person’s life – it’s a generation’s life,” Adebayor said.

“This person will talk to his kid, his kid will talk to his grandkid and so on. So, for me, this is limitless.”

There are even plans for an Emmanuel Adebayor University in Togo as this one-time controversial figure plans to impact his country’s society the same way he did its football.