FORMER ARSENAL and Manchester City star Emmanuel Adebayor has refused to donate to his home nation of Togo’s battle against coronavirus.
The 36-year-old, who now plays for Paraguayan Club Olimpia, pocketed well over £100,000-a-week during his days playing in the Premier League, having also represented Tottenham.
And he was recently earning around £38k-a-week in Turkey playing for Istanbul Basaksehir, with his estimated net worth said to be £36m.
Despite that vast fortune, the striker has come in for fierce criticism for refusing to help the African nation he was born and raised in go to war against the deadly Covid-19 bug.
Now Adebayor has hit back by releasing a video online saying he “did not bring the coronavirus to Togo” and he will continue to “do what I want to do.”
Speaking on a Facebook Live video, Adebayor said: “For those who say that I do not donate, let me be very clear, I really do not donate. This is very simple.
“I do what I want to do, eat the food I want, and this is the most important. Then, there will be those who criticise me for not having established a charity in Togo.
“But it seems that I brought the coronavirus to Togo, it is very unfortunate, but this is the case and what happened in the country.”
Cameroon legend Samuel Eto’o has donated relief packages to his country with items such as food, soaps, sanitisers and protective equipment included.
Chelsea icon Didier Drogba has also donated the soon-to-be-completed Laurent Pokou hospital, built by his Drogba Foundation, to Ivory coast’s government as a facility to screen for the disease.
But Adebayor insists he does not want to be compared to either of them.
He added: “I’m sorry that people compare me to Samuel Eto’o and Didier Drogba by asking me why I don’t have a foundation or why I don’t donate, as if I was the one who brought the coronavirus to Togo…
“I am Emmanuel Adebayor and I will always do what I want to do.”
As of Thursday morning, official statistics stated there were 86 cases of coronavirus in Togo with six deaths.
