Emmanuel Adebayor Adebayor was also eligible to play for Nigeria but chose to represent the country of his birth, Togo. Adebayor helped Togo qualify for the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations after scoring 11 goals in the qualifiers, more than any other player in the African qualifiers. On 10 February 2009, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) picked Adebayor as the African Footballer of the Year for 2008 at an awards ceremony held in Lagos, Nigeria. 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. It
Emmanuel "Mannie" Essien to 1987 where his father was the first provost of NTTC Gombe, an institution of higher learning. Then in Calabar he completed his primary education at Auntie Margaret International school in 1989, after which he attended Federal Government College Enugu in 1992 then later finishing at Federal Government College Ikot Ekpene in 1996. He gained admission to study linguistics at the University of Calabar in 1999, graduating in 2003. Essien wrote songs as a young boy, and tried out in talent competitions like the Golden Tones with Benson and Hedges and the first Project Fame in 2004 representing Nigeria in