Emmanuel Adebayor has claimed that his mother and relatives, are using ‘juju’ (witchcraft) to end his football career prematuredly.

The Togo and Tottenham Hotspurs striker, has stayed away from his family including his mother, who he went with to receive the Africa Footballer of the Year award in Lagos, Nigeria.

“As at now, our mother is selling polythene bags, padlocks and other things on the (Ghana/Togo) border. Our mother has not seen him for more than a year and he rejects her calls anytime. Our mother is not calling him for his money, she just wants to see him because she loves him very much,” Adebayor’s sister, Maggie told Peace FM.

However, Adebayor, speaking to the same radio station, insisted that he cut off from his family, because they are plotting evil against him.

“How can I talk to a mother who together with my sisters have been plotting juju against me?” he fired back.

It is a sharp contrast to the comments he provided to Daily Mail in 2009, where he said: “At the airport my mum said, ‘Go to France and you can change the way this family lives.’ She knew that if I succeeded in football we could have a better life and finally get out of poverty. At 15 I wasn’t just playing for my own glory, I was playing for the sake of my family.