By Sulayman Bah
If at all Ali Sowe is relieved then this appears to be the moment after he got freed off the grips of Italian Serie A side Chievo Verona, signing permanently in Bulgaria’s Premier League.
Like the UK’s Chelsea FC, Chievo boasts of a blizzard of young talents finding themselves entangled in a sequence of loan spells in spite of their sometimes impressive performances.
Sowe arrived at Chievo late 2012, becoming the first Gambian to sign the dotted lines with a side in the Serie A –one of the top five in Europe.
He started brightly featuring in few matches in the top tier before loan deals in the Serie B followed prior to a bold move to go to Albania’s Super Lig. That escape delivered all the goodies, morphing him into what he’s become today –the striker whose addiction for goals is insatiable.
Chievo still did not feel the need to incorporate the Gambian striker into their first-team or at least the coaches there even after he’d netted over 20 goals and won the golden boot and Albanian Super Lig title.
A horde of foreign teams from Turkey and Croatia’s Hajduk Split all queued up for the player’s services to get him at least on loan.
Bulgaria’s CSKA Sofia managed to persuade Chievo, an association initially proposed on a short stint that is now bonded by a new three-year deal rewarding the striker’s efforts.
Opening up on how it all came to this, the former Gamtel goal-getter was more than willing to talk about it in his sixth interview with Foroyaa Sport from abroad.
‘It was hard for me to decide on a permanent move this past summer (June) due to the contract I had with my ex-club (Chievo Verona of Italy) because they had other plans for me … whilst I was ready to leave for another adventure and start in a new environment,’ he said.
On the clubs that trailed him all season, he again ventured: ‘So, before coming to CSKA I had many interesting clubs in Europe as well that were interested in buying me but almost all of them couldn’t reach to an agreement with Chievo.’
Likened to retired Ivory Coast legend, Didier Drogba, Sowe is relieved to have begun a new chapter –one that could potentially avail consistent Uefa Champions League or Europa football.
‘Now I’m happy that with CSKA we’re able to have an agreement after everything I was happy that I ended up coming to CSKA Sofia in the first place, and now I’m ready to start all over with my new family (team and teammates),’ he notes.
This occurrence presents a new trajectory for Ali who will be playing for the first time without qualms of having to return to a parent club at the end of each season.
