Emmanuel Adebayor’s transfer to Paraguay’s Olimpia is one of the most surprising transfers made in recent years.
The Togolese international has played in Turkey since 2017 and made an unexpected move signing for the Paraguayan champions.
This led some of BabaGol's greatest minds to think of other famous African players who played in South America, some of which might surprise you and make you wonder if it's even true. Here is the journey after the unknown Africans of South America.
Geremi
Adebayor is not the first African player to play in Paraguay. In 1996, after the Cameroonian national team played in Brazil, Cerro Porteño decided to sign one of their players, 17-year-old Geremi Njitap. This was the first time he had left his home country. He played 6 league matches and 4 more in the Copa Libertadores that season, before getting his first contract in Europe for Turkish side Gençlerbirliği.
Later, Geremi became a leading Cameroonian player with 118 international caps. He won a gold medal in the 2000 Olympic Games, and two Africa Cup of Nations titles. He also played for Real Madrid and Chelsea, spending 10 seasons in two of the major European leagues.
Pierre Webó
In 2000, after playing one season in the Gambia, Webó signed for Uruguayan club Nacional. During his two seasons there, he won two championship titles and led Nacional to the 2002 Copa Sudamericana semifinals. At the end of the successful campaign, Webó won the top scorer title, becoming the only non-South America player in the history of CONMEBOL competitions to win that award.
Since then, he played in Spain for 9 years and 7 more years in Turkey. He made 58 international caps for Cameroon and played in both the 2010 and 2014 World Cups 2010. The real grand finale for his career was in 2018, when the 36-year-old Webó decided to return to where his international career started, and signed with Nacional once more. He played two more matches and officially retired at the end of the year.
Doctor Khumalo
Khumalo, a true legend of South African football, could easily be a one-club player. He played for Kaizer Chiefs for 17 years and made 50 international caps, including winning the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations and playing in the 1998 World Cup.
In 1995, after signing with the Argentine agent Marcelo Houseman, Khumalo left the Kaizer Chiefs for the first time in his career. He signed for Ferro Carril Oeste in Argentina and made his debut against Independiente. In that match, Khumalo scored his only goal for Ferro Carril Oeste, which is still considered one of the most nostalgic goals in the club's history. He only played four matches before returning to South Africa.
Nii Lamptey
Lamptey was one of the rising stars of Ghana in the 1990’s, signed by Anderlecht when he was only 16 years old. After short loan spells in PSV and Aston Villa and a slightly more stable run with Coventry City, Lamptey made his move to South America in 1997. He was supposed to sign for Boca Juniors, but due to the strict limits on the signing of foreign players he eventually signed with Unión Santa Fe. His career in Argentina yielded only 6 matches in which he participated.
His South American experience ended with a heartbreak. His third son, Diego, passed away after suffering from lung disease. After the Ghanaian authorities refused to accept Lamptey's request to bury him in Ghana, he decided to leave Argentina and almost retired. He returned to Europe, played in Turkey, Portugal and Germany for a while, but he never fulfilled his potential.
Alphonse Tchami
Unlike Lamptey, Tchami did sign with Boca Juniors. In 1994, after two years in Denmark and despite only playing a minor role in the 1994 World Cup, he found himself with the major Argentine side. During his period in Los Xeneizes, Tchami made 50 appearances and scored 11 goals, one of them in a 4-2 away win against River Plate.
Tchami left Boca Juniors after three years but failed to repeat his Argentine success. He played in Germany, the UAE, Scotland, France, China and Lebanon, but didn't manage to stick with a club for more than one season. On the other hand, he continued his successful international career with the national team, including an appearance in the 1998 World Cup, tallying a total of 21 goals in 57 caps.
Cyrille Makanaki
Before the times when everyone knew Cameroon’s potential, the 1990 World Cup was a milestone for the Les Lions Indomptables. One of the players that played all five matches of the Cameroonian team was Cyrille Makanaki, who back then only played for minor teams in France. The World Cup success led him to sign with Malaga, and later with Villareal.
The later stages of Makanaki's career had some unusual choice of clubs, such as playing in Israel. One of the exciting teams he played for was Barcelona, not the famous one from Spain - but the Ecuadorian version, where Makanaki signed in 1994. He scored 9 goals in 30 matches and led the club to the 1994-95 domestic league title. At the end of that season, he returned to France. In 1996 he made a comeback to Ecuador, once again to Barcelona. That season ended with another championship and Makanaki retired in the summer of 1997.
Thomas N'Kono
Another player from the 1990 World Cup golden squad of Cameroon. The goalkeeper played more than 200 matches for Espanyol, 112 international caps for the national team and participated in three World Cups. Moreover, Italian legend Gianluigi Buffon confessed that it was N’kono’s performance in the 1990 World Cup that inspired him to choose the goalkeeping position.
In 1994, N'Kono signed with the last club in his career, Club Bolívar. In three seasons, the Cameroonian made 92 league appearances in Bolivia and won the league title twice, in 1996 and 1997. He also broke the Bolivian league record, keeping a clean sheet for a consecutive 761 minutes. In his last season, N'Kono was 41 years old. He then retired after 33 years of professional football.
Modeste Mbami
The Cameroonian midfielder had a decent career in Europe. Three seasons in Paris Saint-Germain, three seasons in Marseille, and a short spell in Spain. At the age of 29, he decided to take the next step that many do before retiring – signing for clubs from leagues with a little too much money. He played in Dalian Aerbin and Changchun Yatai from China, moved to the Saudi club Ittihad Jeddah, but then he decided to head for South America.
His destination was Bogota, and Mbami joined Millonarios. The club decided to sign him after he was recommended by Oyié Flavié, a Cameroonian player that played in Colombia for a decade. Mbami's tour of Colombia was short, amassing 14 matches in three months. Upon signing, expectations were high but he failed to impress and quickly left back to France.
Ibrahim Sekagya
Ugandan football has vastly improved over the past few years, but in the first decade of the 21st century, one of the biggest names of The Cranes was Ibrahim Sekagya. He signed his first contract in Argentina in 2001, as he played for Atlético de Rafaela, back then in the second division. He played for three more years in that division, later for Ferro Carril Oeste, and made more than 100 appearances in the league. In 2005, he played the top tier for the first time, after joining Arsenal de Sarandi.
His years in Argentina led many scouts to write his name in their notes, but it was Red Bull Salzburg that eventually brought him to Europe in 2007. He won three Austrian Bundesliga titles and later moved to another Red Bull club, New York Red Bulls, where he finished his career.