By Sulayman Bah
When Stade de Reims lodged in an offer for Yusupha Njie it was believed that Gambia had finally gotten a man to consistently feature in the French top tier –one of Europe’s best ranked leagues in the sport.
The interest of Reims, to most, represented a step in the direction for the player’s development.
Formalities akin with signature of a contract were very much in manifest – staging contract talks, inspection of the player in question by the suitors willing to splash the cash to permanently secure his services from his current employers.
The seller here was Boavista – a Portuguese top flight side ready to cash in on one of their prized asset, a forward they secured initially on loan deal from former Moroccan premier league champions FUS Rabat.
In under a year, Njie has thrived and morphed into something of a star inviting fancied top teams towards him.
Much has been discussed about where lies his future amid the bombardment of enquiries from suitors clamouring for his services.
Talks over signing of a player is triggered only by three things: the employing club considering the player a surplus to requirements, agitation by the player voicing desire to leave or in the case of Njie, the club ready to yield profit which represents business well made, considering in the first place the paltry sum they forked out to get him from the Moroccan outfit.
In no time the chairmen of Boavista and Reims had reached a consensus with passing of a medical examination the sole hitch delaying completion of the deal.
It is at this juncture, circumstances threw spanner in the works of Boavista, Njie and Reims. The deal collapsed owing to medical examination.
Opening up on what caused his failed move to the French Ligue1, Njie offered only a line as an explanation.
‘I went to France, but the operation ended up falling,’ he told a Portuguese publication.
To the media in Gambia and Portugal, we were told the deal couldn’t go over the line owing to monetary issues with reports suggesting Boavista frowned upon Stade de Reims offer to pay by instalments.
Collapse of the agreement coincided with the attacker’s injury which sidelined him for close to three months, returning to the pitch much later with just ten games to end of the league.
Yusupha recuperated, wowed the crowds at various stadiums when he got back to playing. The end result of that is the reports of interest from Benfica, Porto willing to sign him.
For now, he is focused on pre-season drills with Boavista in anticipation of the forthcoming new league campaign.
