Magnificently petty
Ask any footballer who’s been through it and they’ll tell you: forcing a transfer from one club to another is a complicated business. Sometimes, it can be downright messy, if the club really aren’t for selling.
There are things that can be done to accelerate the process, of course. Handing in a formal transfer request is an obvious starting point. Then, if things really aren’t moving along, you can take the nuclear option and not turn in for training.
In terms of sheer pettiness, however, nothing comes close to matching what Didier Lamkel Zé decided to do to try and push through his move from Royal Antwerp to Panathinaikos.
With the Greek club reportedly interesting in the Cameroonian winger, any progress in a deal being done appeared to be moving painfully slowly. Far, far too slowly for Lamkel Zé, who decided action was necessary.
https://twitter.com/touchlinefracas/status/1346769634603782150
To his credit, he had no plans of boycotting training and turned up as per usual. The problem, though, was that he chose to do so while wearing the shirt of one of Antwerp’s great domestic rivals, Anderlecht.
Needless to say, this didn’t go down too well with the club’s supporters. He was even denied access to the training facilities on arrival, as several images doing the rounds on Twitter highlight.
With Franky Vercauteren recently taking charge at Antwerp, Lamkel Zé has now apologised for his actions.
“I want to apologise to the club and to the Antwerp supporters, because they are magnificent and wonderful supporters, they have always supported me,” he says, blaming his decision on his head being somewhere else – namely Greece.
https://twitter.com/official_rafc/status/1346511504556904453
We wait to see if any transfer takes place. If it doesn’t, it’s probably just as well Antwerp are playing their games behind closed doors for now.
