Sheyi Emmanuel Adebayor (French pronunciation: [ɛmanɥɛl adəbɛjɔʁ]; born 26 February 1984) is a Togolese former professional footballer who played as a striker.

He was voted African Footballer of the Year for 2008 while playing at Arsenal,[3] and during his latter career, when he joined Olimpia Asunción in 2020, he became the highest paid player in Paraguay.

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.

[16] 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.

[25] 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.

[28] On 7 April 2009, Adebayor equalized a goal for Arsenal in the quarter-finals of the Champions League against Villarreal, in which he chested the ball into his control and then performed a bicycle kick.

Adebayor, however, was injured for the last two Premier League matches and finished the season as Arsenal's second top goalscorer in all competitions with 16, behind Robin van Persie's 20.

[32] On his home debut, Adebayor scored in the 17th minute in a 1–0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers, assisted by fellow summer signing Carlos Tevez.

[36] In the match against Arsenal, Adebayor's former teammate Robin van Persie accused him of deliberately kicking him in the face,[37] and he was later handed a three-match ban after being found guilty of violent conduct.

During the 2010–11 season, however, Adebayor fell down the pecking order at Manchester City following the club purchasing Edin Džeko, with Carlos Tevez and Mario Balotelli also being chosen ahead of him.

In August 2011, Roberto Mancini confirmed that Adebayor, along with Craig Bellamy, were no longer part of his plans and could leave Manchester City.

[43] Adebayor scored his first goal for Real Madrid in the second leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final against Sevilla at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium.

He won his first winner's medal at Real Madrid on 20 April, coming on as a second-half substitute in his side's 1–0 win over Barcelona in the 2011 Copa del Rey final.

[46] Adebayor returned to Manchester City after the Spanish season had finished, but was omitted from their pre-season tour of the United States on 11 July 2011 and later risked a £300,000 fine for refusing to train with the club's reserve and youth teams.

[50] Adebayor also provided the assist for Rafael van der Vaart's goal in their 2–1 North London derby win against former club Arsenal on 2 October.

[51] During that game, Adebayor was subjected to Arsenal fans taunting him about the Togo national football team attack, which he had survived 2 years earlier.

[57] On 15 April 2012, Adebayor provided an assist for Gareth Bale in Tottenham's only goal in the 5–1 loss to Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final.

[60] In the final game of his loan spell with Tottenham,[61] Adebayor opened the scoring as Spurs defeated London rivals Fulham 2–0 on 13 May to secure fourth place in the Premier League.

[63][64] On 17 November 2012, Adebayor scored an early goal for Tottenham in a North London derby match against Arsenal to put them 1–0 up, but seven minutes later his challenge on Santi Cazorla saw him sent off by referee Howard Webb.

[citation needed] On 14 March 2013, Adebayor scored the decisive away goal that put Spurs through to the quarter-finals of the Europa League in an aggregate win against Internazionale.

[75] He ended the season as Spurs' top goalscorer with 14 goals from 25 appearances after scoring in their final Premier League match on 11 May 2014, a 3–0 defeat of Aston Villa at White Hart Lane.

[81] He scored six goals in 11 league games over the remainder of the season, including a hat-trick on 10 April in a 4–0 home win over Galatasaray, as his team finished runners-up.

[92] On 23 February, Adebayor made his debut for Olimpia in the Paraguayan Superclásico against Cerro Porteño in a 1–1 home draw, coming on after half time in place of Santa Cruz.

[93] On 5 March, Adebayor made his first appearance in the 2020 Copa Libertadores in a 1–1 away draw against Ecuadorian club Delfin, replacing Santa Cruz in the 80th minute.

[94] On 9 March 2020, he made his second and last league appearance against River Plate Asunción in a 1–1 home draw, playing the full 90 minutes at Olimpia's Estadio Manuel Ferreira.

[98] At the beginning of July, it was announced that Adebayor, who was contracted until December,[99] would not return to the club, by mutual consent, due to the high risk of the contagious virus during travel and that the flights and stop offs were complicated.

Adebayor beat final nominees Mohamed Aboutrika of Egypt and Ghana's Michael Essien in a vote that involved the national team coaches of CAF's 54 member-nations.

[111] Adebayor consequently announced his retirement from international football on 12 April 2010 in a statement which read, "I have weighed up my feelings in the weeks and months since the attack and I am still haunted by the events which I witnessed on that horrible afternoon on the Togo team bus.

"[112] Adebayor subsequently returned to international duty in November 2011 following assurances from the Togolese Football Federation regarding safety,[113] making his comeback in a 1–0 win over Guinea-Bissau in a 2014 World Cup qualifier.

These troubles included several relatives asking for large amounts of money, his sister renting out a house he had bought for her without him knowing, and complications surrounding the death of his brother Peter.