If you register for free, you will be able to post threads, vote on polls and lots more. If you have problems with the registration or logging in, please contact the administrator.
Young Portuguese starlet making his mark at Arsenal
Sixteen-year-old Rui Fonte living a dream in London
Rui Fonte is a name to remember. At just 16 years of age Fonte has signed a three-year contract at Arsenal and Arsene Wenger has been so impressed with the striker he has already called up the former Sporting youth to train with the senior squad.
While still in his mid-teens, Rui Fonte took the courageous decision to leave his home, family and friends behind him to seek fame and fortune in a foreign country.
“This is what I want. Book the tickets because I’m ready!" Fonte told his parents upon being offered the chance to play for one of Europe’s biggest clubs.
Sensational start
Stepping onto the pitch for the Gunners’ under-18 team, the forward did not ask for a second opportunity to impress. Two goals and four assists in his first two matches convinced Wenger to select Fonte for the reserves against Southampton on Tuesday.
Fifteen minutes on the pitch, alongside names such as Senderos and Almunia, left the youngster in dreamland. But things got even better the next day, as Fonte explains.
“They called me up to train with the seniors. It was a unique experience, words cannot describe it. I was training with the stars. Wenger told me to stay calm and to do my best.”
His work pleased the legendary French manager, and Fonte was told to train again with the first-team players the following day.
An incredible week in the life of the starlet was only prevented from being perfect by the absence of his boyhood hero, Henry, away on international duty with France.
Idol Henry
“That was the only thing lacking. He has been my idol since I was a nipper and just being able to train with him would leave me speechless. To play alongside him would be perfect!”
Next Tuesday the reserves play again, possibly featuring the Portuguese youngster with a glittering future before him.
Now you know why Rui Fonte is a name to remember.
[article abridged and translated from this Friday’s A Bola; original author, Pedro Mendonça]
Read this on DailyMail.co.uk and found it quite interesting, thought you would like it too.
What begins as a confession from Emmanuel Eboue ends as a warning to the world’s finest left wingers. "When I am on the pitch, I find it hard to control myself. I’m thinking of my little brothers and sisters in Africa who are counting on me. I’m not out there on the pitch to mess about or have a laugh. Sometimes you can be more light-hearted, but not all the time. It depends on the situation.
"When I came up against Robbie Keane, in that recent game against Tottenham, I got angry because first he provoked me, then he annoyed me, then he trod on me and then he insulted me. I don’t accept that. I don’t like being insulted or shouted at by a player. I just want to do my job well and I don’t like people messing about with me during a game."
Eboue is a serious young man — and a seriously good defender for Arsenal. But, for all that he smiles, and talks — and how he talks — he remains remarkably intense for someone who has not yet celebrated his 24th birthday.
Certain boundaries emerge. Ask him for his wife’s name and he says ‘Mrs Eboue’. Ask him about his parents, however, and he is refreshingly candid, emotional even.
It is understandable when he reflects on the fact that his mother deserted him at birth and his father died when he was 13. It was only last August that mother and son were reunited.
"I didn’t really know what to expect or what had happened," says Eboue as he relaxes at the Arsenal training ground.
‘When I was little I thought my grandmother was my mother. I was always with her and I called her mum.
"But then when I saw other kids my age with their mums it hurt me. It didn’t seem right. I told my grandmother that I wanted to meet my real mother, just to know who she was. So my grandmother called her and we met up earlier this year. I didn’t try to find out why she had abandoned me or anything like that.
"I was just happy to see her and, now I have her phone number, we speak regularly. We share each other’s news.’
When it came to news, nothing compared to being told that his father had died.
"I knew that my father had been ill but my relatives didn’t want me to go and visit him,’ he says.
"They didn’t want the whole thing to have an effect on me. Then one day I came home and everyone was at the house. My family were all there, crying and everything, and I knew then that something was wrong.
"When I found out just how serious it was, that my father had died, it completely devastated me. I’ve never asked how he died but it really hurt.
"I was so close to my father, probably because I never knew my mother. I had to live with my grandparents but he used to help me a lot. He also played football in Abidjan (former capital of the Ivory Coast where Eboue was born) and he used to give me lots of advice.
"My father’s friends say he was a very good player. He was a defender. I never saw him play apart from when we would have a kickabout near home but I could tell then that he was a good player with good skills.
"Even today, it hurts that he has gone because we were so close. I hope he is in peace now. He has given me such strength and I can feel his presence, even when I’m playing football. I can feel him near me and that motivates me, makes me stronger for my brothers in Abidjan.
"God has taken him away but I must now look after my brothers and sisters and help them. God has given me strength and good health to continue to look after my brothers and sisters."
Eboue is one of 12 brothers and sisters and he supports all of them as well as members of the wider family.
"I have my own wife and two children to support but at the end of each month I send money to my family in Abidjan,’ he says. "It’s normal that I help my family."
His family hoped to see him become a lawyer but it was always going to be football as far as Eboue was concerned. His talent was first identified when he was playing on a scrub pitch for a local team called ASEC Mimosas and a scout invited him to join the Jean-Marc Guillou football academy.
It was there that he began to develop significantly as a player.
"At the academy we were taught to keep possession and control the ball," he says. "The focus was more on the technical and tactical side of the game. There is less emphasis on physical conditioning because that probably tends to come more naturally.
"The technical side stays with you and in games you sometimes take more of a risk by trying to dribble. I personally like to get forward, dribble and attack with the ball, or provide goalscoring opportunities."
Guillou’s contacts eventually marking the world’s greatest player — Ronaldinho — in club football’s greatest game — the Champions League Final. That might be the stuff of nightmares for some right backs but not for Eboue.
"I had in my head all the inhabitants of the Ivory Coast, as I believed that, if I played well against him and stopped him, I would be even better known at home and in the world," he says.
On that night in Paris it was notoriety that also came his way for other reasons — his challenge on Gio van Bronckhorst and the dive that secured a free-kick for Arsenal and a goal for Sol Campbell.
He denies any intent on both counts. ‘I honestly didn’t mean to and I apologised immediately,’ he says of a foul that he admits deserved more than a yellow card. And the dive? ‘It is not my style to play like that,’ he says, the seriousness of his tone suggesting it would be wise to leave it there.
I have loads of respect for players like him, this certainly touched my heart.
EMMANUEL ADEBAYOR is one of those blokes who walks around with a permanent grin on his face.
When you hear his story, little wonder.
Arsenal’s African strike star prays every day, thanking God for a life which is a world away from the one back home, in Togo.
One of the Premiership’s in-form players, who has scored three goals in the last six games for Arsene Wenger, says some footballers simply do not appreciate how lucky they are.
Now a national hero back home, he said: “In the past Togo was quite a good place to live and of course I still love it now. But it is a little difficult as, politically, it is not stable.
“To tell you the truth, I’d probably be a gangster if I weren’t a footballer. Most of my friends from when I was young are bad boys.
"They roam my home city of Lome. They drink too much, smoke drugs and are involved in crime.
“But that is life in some parts of Africa. It is so different to other parts of the world and you have to accept that.
“You have to enjoy life. Some footballers forget how lucky they are. It is a wonderful lifestyle.
“At Arsenal, the players are a very nice bunch. I am so lucky.
“But elsewhere, many players have forgotten where they have come from and where they are going to.
“They have their money and they think that is life. They need reminding what they were doing when they were 15. That they weren’t going to nice restaurants.
“Growing up, it was always the same food. Mum would prepare yam, which is like mashed potato, and that would be it.
“We’d have it for dinner, the following lunchtime and then dinner again. I still eat it here in London. My girlfriend Charity cooks it — but we don’t eat it every day!
“Because if I was like some of those footballers I was talking about, I would rather put a gun in my head. Unfortunately, you cannot tell them to change.”
Adebayor, 21, an extrovert who speaks faster than a racehorse commentator, was born in a village of 900 people called Kodjoviakope, just outside the capital.
He added: “I always wanted to grow up, be a footballer and help my family financially.
"Now it has worked. I always played in my school shoes when I was young, as most of us did, so I now return home armed with kit and boots to give to the youngsters. It makes me so happy to make them happy.
“To reach the World Cup this year with Togo was amazing, as it gave joy to people back home.”
Adebayor started playing for a team called CDS in Lome before being spotted by Metz in France. He then moved to Monaco before his £7million arrival at Arsenal back in January.
He added: “It was fantastic to sign for the club where my biggest hero, Kanu, was a star.When I was younger I had posters of him on my wall.
"When I bought a flat in Togo, I put them up there again. To be honest, I would have played for Arsenal for free.
“It was amazing they let me have the No 25 shirt, which was Kanu’s number. Of course, it meant so much to play against him in the Portsmouth match last week.
“On the bench, I was saying to Thierry ‘He is the man. This is the man that inspired me’.
“It is fantastic to play for Arsene Wenger and the atmosphere here is tremendous.
"I do play a lot of jokes on people. I like laughing. Sometimes, when a player is getting ready in the dressing room, I walk behind them and I take their legs away so they fall to the ground.
"I tend to do most of this on Emmanuel Eboue — we spend half our time throwing water over each other.”
*
Adebayor has certainly impressed since the injury to Thierry Henry and hopes they will form a devastating partnership to fire Arsenal closer to Chelsea and Manchester United.
He added: “People said Arsenal would die without Thierry but we do have a lot of other good players. Of course, we need him desperately.
“It’s nice to get so many compliments. But, I want Thierry back on the pitch with me. He is giving me a lot of advice — which is very helpful. And we will not give up on the title. No way.
“It is close at the top between those two and I can see Chelsea catching Manchester United. But who knows? Maybe United will come back again. Or maybe they will both slip up.”
Whatever happens, you know Adebayor will enjoy life in England.
He said: “I love the fact that people in England live for football. I don’t like the weather but I love London. I have been to The Queen’s house and visited that bridge where the road goes up in the air.
Linear Mode
