As widely suspected by local fans, Real Madrid striker Emmanuel Adebayor will not be making the trip to Blantyre alongside Togo team for the qualifier against Malawi. The Togo Football Federation (FTF) media department said Thursday the Sparrow Hawks former captain had backed out from a previous arrangement.
An initial roster of 23 players published early this week mentioned Adebayor’s presence, which sparked a nationwide speculation about the possible arrival of the former Manchester City forward. The FTF had assured the player would fly from Spain to join the rest of the team in Malawi ahead of the March 26 meeting.
However, Adebayor was excluded from a final list of 18 players released on Thursday.
“I never promised anyone I was coming to play the Malawi-Togo match,” Adebayor told the BBC on Thursday.
“If I had wanted to play the match, I’d have been already gone, but now, I’m just out of a training session with my club in Madrid. I’m not going nowhere for that match,” the 27-year-old concluded.
Adebayor retired from international football on 12 April 2010, in the wake of a gunfire attack on Togo team bus prior to the 2010 African Cup of Nations held in Angola. Togo former coach Stephen Keshi has been solicited by the FTF to lead the squad for the third round African Cup of Nations qualifying. He was seen at a training session a day ago.
With 3 points, Togo are second from bottom in a five-member Group K topped by Botswana (13pts), followed by Tunisia (7pts), Malawi (6pts), with Chad closing on 2 points.
