By Sulayman Bah
Rave reviews are being thrown in Omar Colley’s direction as the Gambian gets rated as one of top players to look out for in Belgium this season.
Respected French Sports paper L’ Equipe took the trouble to scour players in the Belgian top tier, trimming its finding to a short-list of five must-watch players, a quintet of which also included Gambia’s national team captain Omar Colley.
Sofiane Hanni, Dendoncker, Mauves Leander from Anderlecht all made the cut along with left-sided centre-back Colley.
The thumps-up rating lends credit to the Scorpion’s performances last season and gives Italian top tier side Sampdoria even a greater reason to pursue Omar.
Last week, the Italian club tabled a €5m offer before lodging an improved proposal thought to be €8m, two million euros shy of Genk’s €10m valuation of the Gambia international.
Sampdoria are desperate to fill the void left by defender Krinar’s departure to Inter Milan and view the left-sided Scorpions’ captain as a like-for-like replacement.
The Serie A side are a big club and Genk’s foot dragging was aimed at exploiting Sampdoria’s desperation by refusing to budge on their asking price in the hope Colley’s suitors will cough up more.
However, having seen the Italians now appear to shift their focus scouring other available defenders, Genk has now, according to reports, soften their stance and wouldn’t therefore mind accepting a proposal of little more than €8m instead of the initial €10m they’ve asked for.
A retry from Sampdoria may change the dynamics and should a deal be brokered, it will see Omar become the most expensive Gambia player in history.
