Former Arsenal defender Emmanuel Eboue has made himself something of a cult hero among football fans in recent years.
The former Ivory Coast international was a key part of the Arsenal side that reached the 2006 Champions League final but that success was short
-lived, as was his career in north London.
Yet, whether it’s his eccentric touchline warm-ups or his infamous attempt to listen in on North Korea defender and his manager in conversation, the Ivorian has endeared many of the Arsenal fans who once booed him off as a substituted substitute.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Eboue has now revealed how on a trip to Buckingham Palace in 2008, he once approached the Queen and asked her if he could quit football to look after her two corgi dogs.
“We went there and Thierry Henry said to me, ‘Please, Emmanuel, this is Buckingham Palace, it’s the Queen’s house, don’t do anything.’ I said, ‘No problem,’ I said. ‘Don’t worry’.
“So the Queen came in and went along shaking each player’s hand. After she’d finished I saw all her corgis. So I said to the Queen, ‘Ma’m, Ma’m’. She turned back and asked, ‘How are you?’ and I said, ‘Ma’m, I am OK thank you but please, I don’t want to be a footballer any more, I want to look after your dogs. I want to take them for walks, wash them, feed them. I don’t want to play football any more. I want to be a dog carer.
“The Queen, honestly, she was laughing. Prince Philip was laughing. All the team were laughing. A few minutes after she left someone from the Palace came over to me and said, ‘Are you serious? You want to take care of the dogs?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’m serious!’”
Eboue called time on his playing career after a short stint with Sunderland in 2016 was mutually terminated by both parties.
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