Africa’s Most Expensive Footballer Finds a club After 505 days

The former Swansea and Manchester City striker has returned to Holland.

The once-most expensive African player has found a new team and is about to play his first competitive game in over 500 days. Wilfried Bony joined Manchester City for 4 billion Ksh in 2015, the highest fee ever paid for an African player at the time. The next year, he was loaned to Stoke City since new manager Pep Guardiola didn’t need him, before being re-signed by Swansea for only 1.6 billion pounds. He went on loan to Al-Arabi before returning to Swansea, only to be dismissed after the club was relegated and faced financial constraints. Bony finally got a squad in January 2020, but by November of that year, he was already without one, when Al Ittihad announced that their contract had been mutually terminated. And after more than a year without a club, the Ivorian found himself in Holland, where he quickly turned fans against him.

His most recent game was on September 9, 2020. He signed for NEC Nijmegen 505 days ago, but he is about to begin a new chapter, as he announced.

„I believe I contacted one person about coming to Holland. Then we got in touch with Ted van Leeuwen, the sporting director. ‘Yes, there is a possibility, I will do everything for you, give me some time to talk to my board, and we’ll see what happens,’ he said. Personally, my goals are to stay in shape, to assist the team in achieving their goal of remaining in the league, to fight every game, and to see what the season has in store for us “After the signing, he said.

Fans, on the other hand, were not pleased with his arrival. NEC and Vittese are bitter rivals, and the Ivorians moved to Swansea from Vittese in 2013. About Bony’s time with Vitesse, a segment of the NEC crowd held a banner at the stadium that said: “Bony Not Welcome.”

“That’s typical, and I expect it. This is a normal aspect of the game. I’m coming here to do what I enjoy the most: playing football. I’m glad I’ll be able to play football again, and I’m grateful to NEC for providing me with the opportunity to do so. For the fans, I understand; this is a part of their lives, a part of the game, and the most important thing I want them to do is to support the team; that is the aim, and I will do everything in my power to achieve it,” Bony added.