2023-08-04 13:04:55
Returning late to training due to the European U23 Championship in Romania and Georgia (June 21-July 8), Niels Nkounkou will not appear on the match sheet of the players selected by Laurent Batlles, the AS coach. Saint Etienne. He will therefore miss the opening of the 2023-2024 Ligue 2 Championship, in front of Grenoble, this Saturday, at 3 p.m. Officially, the international Espoirs (22 years old, 6 caps) is in poor physical condition.
Unofficially, he would have decided to go to the standoff with the leaders of Saint-Etienne. While he had only come to do a six-month freelance job in Forez last January – to save the Greens from descending into National and relaunch his career – Nkounkou did not appreciate seeing ASSE exercise the option purchase imposed by his club Everton (ANG), at the time of his loan, during the winter transfer window. His very successful freelance (6 goals and 8 assists in 20 L2 matches) and the amount of his option (€2.5 million) led the Stéphanois to lift it, in order to achieve a first good shot for this transfer window. of summer.
This is all the more true as the German club Eintracht Frankfurt has sent two firm offers to Saint-Étienne. Both refused, for the moment. But according to the left piston, forcing him to stay in Forez, where his contract now runs until June 30, 2026, does not correspond to the verbal and moral agreements made when he arrived in January.
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