Three Ex-Premier League Players you once loved are at the African Cup of Nations.

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They may have once been your favourites, but it seems most fall out of favour when they leave the bright lights of the Premier League.

Three Ex-Premier League players you once loved are in action this month in the African Cup of Nations, writes Ruairi O’Mahony.

Salomon Kalou – Chelsea/Ivory Coast – Age: 31.

Ex-Chelsea star Salomon Kalou was brought in, in 2006 for £8m. He played with Chelsea for five seasons racking up 60 goals in total. In 2012 he was signed with Lille on a free, but that hasn’t been the end of Kalou, as he has played in both Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga since then and he’s been more than holding his own.

Kalou has been playing in the African Cup of Nations since 2007, so this is no new feat to him. Expect a steady reliable performance, nothing fancy.

At the age of 30, Salomon wasn’t going to let a head injury stop him from scoring a hat-trick to push Hertha Berlin into 4th position at the time.

Mohamed Salah – Chelsea/Egypt – Age: 24.

Another ex-Chelsea prodigy, bought from Basel in January of 2014 after he scored against Chelsea in a Champions League fixture. Bought for £11m and dubbed as Chelsea’s next big thing; he wasn’t around long before he was shipped off on loan to Fiorentina for the second half of a season and once he got back, he was gone again on loan, this time to AS Roma. After a very productive season at Roma, they paid £12m for him on July 1, 2016.

With 11 goals for Egypt so far in his career, Salah will really be one to watch this month.

https://twitter.com/fifa15reviews/status/815239456336859136

We ask Chelsea this, why sell a man that can do this?

And this?

Emmanuel Adebayor – Arsenal/Manchester City/Tottenham/Crystal Palace/Togo – Age: 32.

A household name, not just because of his many clubs and goals, but also because of his in-game shenanigans. A player Manchester City bought for £25m and ended up selling for £5m. He had three-and-a-half good seasons with ‘The Gunners’, yet still mocked Arsenal fans the first chance he got. When he scored against them as a Manchester City player, he sprinted the entire length of the pitch to knee-slide in celebration straight at the Arsenal supporters, earning himself a yellow card in the process. To be best known for insulting people who supported you for three years, it even out-shadows the fact he played for Real Madrid for a year.

Even with this level of maturity and the lack of a club you will still see him this year, captaining Togo into the African Cup of Nations.