Posts Tagged ‘Emmanuel Adebayor’

Togo – No respite for the wicked

Posted: February 1, 2013 by Salim Masoud Said in Africa Cup of Nations 2013
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The Sparrow Hawks continue to defy the odds

The Sparrow Hawks continue to defy the odds

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail. Togo’s arrangements for the Cup of Nations couldn’t have been more inauspicious; preparations almost ran counter-intuitive to the name of the country, for the heart and soul of the team did not want To-Go anywhere.

Indeed, not only was there an overplayed will-he-go-won’t-he-go-to-Afcon stand-off between Emmanuel Adebayor and the Togolese FA over payments and security, the Tottenham striker was allied by key players Alaixys Romao and goalkeeper Kossi ‘Magic Hands’ Agassa. All three were on the team bus when it was horrifically attacked by Angolan rebels in Cabinda, one of the three killed including the press officer and principal confidant of Adebayor, Stan Ocloo. Given the lack of tact CAF showed to ban Togo for a year after their withdrawal from the 2010 tournament, you could have forgiven the Togolese players for not turning up at all.

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50 of the Best African Players of 2012: 40-31

Posted: January 2, 2013 by SFG in African Football, Africans Abroad
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Welcome to the inaugural 50 of the best African players of 2012, sponsored by Africa On The Ball. Note the ‘of the best’ and you’ll instantly recognise that we don’t pretend that we’re all-knowing, nor that we have sauntered through the Carpe Verdean or Central African Republic leagues. We won’t bore you with the nitty-gritties, we’ll keep it brief. We have compiled the list using three criteria: Club form, International form and Impact. The club and international forms are self-explanatory: how well a player applied his ability in the two spheres. The impact, meanwhile, are the feats that were achieved and the monumentality of them. This list is not necessarily an order of the most technically accomplished African players nor is it definitive; it’s a list of 50 African players who have applied their ability consistently during 2012. Enjoy:

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60 Greatest African Players: The Missing Men

Posted: September 4, 2012 by Salim Masoud Said in 60 Greatest African Players
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Some may say Jean-Jacques Gosso has been a missing man all his life.

In a comprehensive list like this, it was inevitable that some celebrated names were going to miss out by the tiniest of margins. A frustratingly common problem I encountered when compiling the list was insufficient evidence for to bring some players style of play and achievements truly into life – a region I particularly struggled with was East Africa. This is where we need your help: we want everything from video footage of these players to trusted accounts of those who saw them play to help us improve the quality of this list. We do intend to lengthen this list and revise it intermittently, so feel free to suggest names of others who missed out or those who should be removed (with reasoning and taking the criteria into account).

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Samba meets Song as Aboutrika returns to the international stage

Posted: April 2, 2012 by Salim Masoud Said in Africa Round-up
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The return of Aboutrika

The Egypt v Uganda friendly in midweek saw the return to international football of Mohamed Aboutrika. The Egyptian playmaker, one of the key members in Egypt’s 2006 and 2008 Cup of Nations triumphs, had announced his retirement in the wake of the Port Said tragedy, where 74 fans died. In his second match back, after a substitute appearance for club side Al Ahly in the CAF Champions League against Ethiopian Coffee (you read that right), Aboutrika was an aerial threat throughout and eventually made Uganda pay by, fittingly, scoring the winner in injury time as Egypt recorded a 2-1 victory.

Despite being named the BBC African Footballer of the Year in 2008, Aboutrika has an obscure profile in Europe, by choice: firstly, Al Ahly have received offers but he has opted to stay at the Egyptian giants, showing gratitude that they made him who he is; secondly, to a much lesser extent, Al Ahly are regarded as the best supported club in Africa and the Arab world, Aboutrika gets paid well enough, that’s for sure. Whilst it’s impossible to fully expand on the qualities of Aboutrika here – as a player and as a human being – he is one of the symbols of what is good about modern Egypt. It’s good to see him back.

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The Unimitable Emmanuel Adebayor

Posted: January 15, 2012 by karateandfriendship in Uncategorized
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Hello, I’m Patrick Brusnahan (karateandfriendship), one of the latest additions to the Boardroom of this blog. Looking forward to this new project greatly and you’ll be seeing me around here a lot more.

Now that introductions are out of the way, let’s get into my profile of one of the biggest, and most controversial, African players to grace the Premier League: Emmanuel Adebayor.

In generic newspaper articles that you may find on the Metro or the Daily Sport, they usually profile players with a “Highs and Lows” panel to try and sum up a player with as little words as they can manage. There are few players that can honestly they have had as extreme high and lows as Adebayor.

The Togolese striker, born in 1984 (the year, not the Orwellian novel), started off at Sporting Club de Lome before quickly moving to Metz in 2001, helping the team’s promotion into Ligue 1 the following year. It can be said that Metz helped greatly to develop the player, as they have with other high profile players, such as Louis Saha and Robert Pires. Maybe he also got his arrogant attitude from the prominent French culture that is on display in France. This is merely conjecture, but worth thinking about. When you have nothing better to do.

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