Togolese footballer, Emmanuel Adebayor, has revealed that he almost committed suicide when he was 16-year-old.
Adebayor, 35, disclosed this in an interview with Daily Mail.
He confessed that the pressure he experienced during his time at French side, Metz, saw him consider suicide.
“I was 16. All I wanted to do was help my family out but they put huge pressure on me. I could not cope with it.
“When a family is poor, everyone is poor and there is huge solidarity. People will take a bullet for you. But when one makes it, it is like you owe everyone.
“At Metz I was on maybe £3,000 a month. My family asked for a house worth £500,000. The club were tired of me because of my behaviour.
“I remember sitting on my bed one night and thinking ‘What am I doing here? Nobody’s happy with me, so what is the point of living?
“There was a pharmacy below my apartment, I bought packet after packet of tablets.
“They did not want to sell it to me but I said it was for a charity in Togo. I made the preparations, I drank all the water. I was ready to go.
“Then I called my best friend at midnight. He told me not to rush, that I have things to live for.
“‘You have the potential to change Africa. I thought ‘You are a dream-seller and I am not buying any dreams right now.
“But he took me out of the moment. I thought God must be keeping me for something,” he said.
Adebayor who has had a nomadic career currently plays for Turkish side, Istanbul Basaksehir.
He made over 250 appearances in English football and scored 122 goals.
