Emmanuel Adebayor can’t understand why he has such a bad reputation in England

Former Premier League striker Emmanuel Adebayor is still at a loss over why he has an unfavourable reputation in England.

The Togolese striker, who has been without a club since leaving Crystal Palace in May, still has a flat in London, while his daughter lives in the city. He has spent most of the last decade in England, enjoying varying levels of success with Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur before his short stint at Selhurst Park. But he told The Guardian he doesn't understand why his reception from people who do not know him differs so much from those who have seen the real Adebayor.

"[One thing I always say is that 90% of the people I’ve played with would say I’m an amazing guy, a great team-mate," he said. "Other people, those who work on the gate at every stadium I’ve played at, will tell you I am a humble guy and a nice person. "But the press will say what they want, and in my career I’ve been unfortunate enough to have a lot of negativity."

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Some of the negativity to affect Adebayor came by virtue of his celebration after scoring for City against Arsenal, where he ran the length of the field to celebrate in front of the travelling Gunners support. But there is certainly a sense that other players guilty of worse have not received close to the same criticism. The former Monaco frontman has also cleared up once and for all the unfounded stories that he was rejected by Lyon after smoking and demanding whisky during contract talks. Adebayor told the paper that talks broke down over the French club's attempts to prevent him playing at the Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon, where he is currently captaining his country. Catch up with this week's episode of Football Friday Live: