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27.05.2015 Opinion

The Curse Of Being Famous: The Adebayor Story

By Mic Yamoah
The Curse Of Being Famous: The Adebayor Story
27.05.2015 LISTEN

Living the life of a celebrity means different things to different people; however, many aspiring models, actors, musicians, athletes, broadcasters dream big. You have heard young aspirants say they want to be up there. A lot will succeed through hard work, but the majority do not get to live their dream—the cash, the houses, the girls and men, the fame and fortune. But being in the spotlight comes with that price tag, which becomes a burden for most of them.

That price tag makes a lot more people shudder to become famous. It is even scarier for them when the fame is not backed with what it takes to maintain that fame- fortune. On the other hand, fame and fortune also do not guarantee the happiness that most of celebrities have hoped for.

The Tottenham Hotspurs and Togolese star Emmanuel Adebayor has been in the news in recent times. He is making news both on and off the soccer pitch. His career has been on an all-time low for his club, scoring 2 goals in 17 appearances this term. Having started his career in France, and heading to England to join Arsenal where he made a lot of waves, and subsequently leaving for Manchester City, a move most soccer pundits touted as a move for money, the 31 year star later had to go on loan spells with Real Madrid and Tottenham Hotspurs before joining the latter in a permanent deal which guaranteed him almost 6 million GB Pounds annually.

Adebayor’s club is willing to pay part of his 100,000GB Pounds a week wage for him to leave the club until his contract runs out in 2016. His club is not happy with his performance; neither is Adebayor himself. He has a lot on his mind. He has, since December last year been given two leaves of absence to travel back home to sort out his personal issues.

His personal issues have been a battle with his immediate family. His family accuses him of neglect. His siblings, last year stormed the studios of Peace FM, Accra to tell the story that they claim the world needed to know about the soccer star.

For many, it was a surprise because Adebayor is a known philanthropist in Togo and Ghana. He, through his foundation, which he launched in Ghana, has undertaken some borehole projects in Hamile and Koro in the Upper East Region of Ghana. A lot more people attest to his kind nature.

His rift with his family thus raised a lot of questions. For some weeks now, he has taken to his Facebook page to tell his side of the story in a three-part post. “I have kept these stories for a long time but I think today it is worth sharing some of them with you. It’s true that family matters should be solved internally and not in public, but I am doing this so that hopefully all families can learn from what happened in mine,” he wrote in his latest post.

You read his posts and you can only empathize with the star. He portrays a soccer stars who is just at the mercy of his family financially, sometimes even at knife point. He appears to have suffered in silence for long. Thus behind that happiness one sees on his face anytime he graces events in Ghana when he is on holidays, lies a façade of depression.

Adebayor, obviously was touted a lover of money rather than soccer. Was it to fulfill his family pressure? The “Daily Mail” in the UK once splashed on their online portal, a banner headline that sought to ridicule the star: “Doors closing on Adebayor in his world where cash is king.”

In all this, his revelation that he had considered suicide on several occasions brings the larger picture of the silent suffering of the famous. Adebayor’s problems are not in a million. There are several celebrities or public figures going through the pressures from family and society. These pressures are not only financial but sometimes being forced to live in a particular way. Once you become a public figure, you belong to the public, thus driving you into a life one never thought of living.

Famous people are known to be the less happiest people on earth. And in their bid to satisfy society and their personal egos, they go the extra mile to make it a living. It is even more deadly when their fortunes begin to dwindle financially or fame-wise. Examples abound of former athletes, musicians and actors who are living in total penury now because they lived their lives to please society. In such critical moments in their lives, friends become less, hence less company. Depression then sets in for most of them.

There is a tall list of celebrities who committed suicide to the surprise of people who were not close to them. There are a lot more who are abusing substances to get over their problems. What for example will prompt Robert Enke, the Hannover and German national team Goalkeeper, who was expected to man the posts for his team in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, to run himself onto a railway track near his home? What about the former Welsh Star and national team manager, Garry Speed who hanged himself in his home in Wales?

In Ghana, the story of highlife musician Tommy Wiredu, who also hanged himself in 2003 in his room in Kumasi, cannot be forgotten. The star was said to be in indebt of about ¢25 million (now GH¢2,500).

Ghanaians were equally shocked at the alleged near suicide attempt by Ghanaian footballer John Paintsil, following the fracas he had with his then wife Richlove. Paintsil had been that darling boy in the eyes of Ghanaians, especially with his demeanor. So when the news broke two years ago that he had stabbed the wife and assaulted a neighbor, and his subsequent arrest by the Legon police, many wondered.

The story of Odartey Lamptey, his former wife and ‘children’ is well too familiar. His playing colleague, Arthur Moses also finds himself in trauma asking for DNA to determine the paternity of his children, after his wife had sought reliefs from the courts to be offered three houses, land and shop as part of her alimony in their divorce.

Yes, everybody has issues to deal with. For the poor or common man, he has worries, but he may look up to that radio presenter, that musician, that television star, that actor to help him alleviate his suffering. That is one burden that being in the public eye, such persons bear. If they fail to live up to expectation, they are branded.

Yes, famous people have their own problems too. They may be as many as the many eye balls that watch them, or ears that listen to them. But who do they turn to? Many suffer in silence, and die a slow death.

Every famous person or celebrity must visit a psychologist or counselor at least twice a year. For if one knew what that person, who had to make himself happy to keep you happy goes through, we will put less pressure on them, but rather pray more for them.

For aspiring celebs, consider John Wooden’s advice: “Talent is God-given; be humble. Fame is man-given; be grateful. Conceit is self-given; be careful.”

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