Arsenal cult hero Emmanuel Frimpong: Where is he now? | OneFootball

Arsenal ex-prodigy Emmanuel Frimpong was once hailed by Arsene Wenger as somebody "you would love to go to war with".

But battles in north London proved few and far between for the combative midfielder, who embedded himself into popular culture by becoming synonymous with the word 'Dench' and featuring on the remix of Lethal Bizzle's 2012 track 'Leave it yeah'.

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Frimpong would only ever make 16 first-team appearances for the club he had joined as a nine-year-old, where he rose through the youth ranks alongside Jack Wilshere. After leaving the Gunners in 2014, he would ply his trade in Russia, Sweden and Cyprus before calling it quits at the tender age of 27.

Why did Emmanuel Frimpong retire?

Frimpong retired in 2019, citing a long-term knee injury. The Ghana international informed his followers on Twitter that he'd been suffering from knee problems for five years and had been unable to play for the last two of those, due to a tear in his knee ligament.

It sounds like the experience took its toll on Frimpong both physically and mentally. Speaking to Lord Ping, he explained: "For me football was painful towards the end of my career. I have really bad memories of football coming towards the end of my career, which I was really struggling to get over."

What happened to Emmanuel Frimpong?

Since retiring, Frimpong has decided to take it easy and enjoy life in Africa. He said: "I haven’t been up to anything. Just eating, sleeping and spending time with family. That's what I've been doing. They're enjoying life going to the beach, and I'm living in Africa at the moment. There’s certainly no racism here!

"It's a bit different to England, of course. England is much more developed and there's more opportunities there. But over here, I feel like I'm at home. I feel I'm with people that understand me. The taxes are also lower here as well. I’m just enjoying life with the family and taking it easy."

Is Emmanuel Frimong still involved in football?

It doesn't sound like Frimpong will be returing to the beautiful game in any capacity any time soon. Instead, he's exploring the globe.

"I am staying away from football at the moment and doing different things," he said. "I just like to do different things like travelling the world. I didn't really have the opportunity to do that. As footballers, you do travel a lot but you don't really have the time to enjoy yourself, especially when you go to different countries. So that's what I'm doing at the moment and hopefully God will show me the next stage of my career."