Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor wants to help African youngsters fulfill their dreams.

The 24-year-old, who is at the centre of a transfer tug-of-war between Arsenal and AC Milan, has recently completed a personal tour of his Togo homeland and deprived communities in Nigeria and Ghana.

Adebayor said: "Seven years ago I was earning pennies and now... but I know what it is to be poor, to have nothing. I have to giving something back. Help find talented players here and help their dreams come true. I know where I came from."

Adebayor's journey is covered in a BBC radio programme to be broadcast tonight in which his mother, Alice, makes a remarkable claim about when she realised her son was going to be a footballer.

She said: "As a baby he couldn't walk. [Then one day in church] someone dropped a ball and it bounced towards us.

"He tried to get up, tried to walk towards it. He was crying, wailing but he finally got the ball.

"The next day he was fine, he could walk, so I knew then he was destined to be a footballer."