Four caps Nigeria international winger Anayo Iwuala was recently signed by Esperance of Tunisia for $500,000 from Nigeria Professional Football League side Enyimba FC of Aba.
Enyimba initially placed a €1 million price tag on the 22 year old but were forced to drop their valuation after the winger’s not too impressive run of games for the senior national team of Nigeria but the message has been passed already.
Teams from Denmark, Greece, France and Belgium all made checks on him and also made contacts with Enyimba but the highest offer Enyimba got was €200,000, which is even not a straight cash deal as it involves several clauses and add ons.
Enyimba went from getting multiple enquiries to having no team from Europe check on the speedy ace for a month. Between that time teams from North Africa who have been told Anayo will only move to a team in Europe crept back into the picture.
This time around they found a way of getting to the player himself and made him to be aware of the financial package that is in for him if he decide to sign the dotted lines. The teams we were made to understand were Pyramids FC of Egypt, Raja Casablanca of Morocco and Esperance of Tunisia.
Esperance were the first to officially contact Enyimba with an offer of $200,000 which was outrightly rejected by Enyimba. Their next bid was $250,000 but just like the first it was knocked back by Enyimba.
Anayo was growing impatient over the impasse as he has his mind made up on the move. Enyimba in order not to act unreasonable told Esperance a deal will be concluded if they accept to pay $500,000.
The Tunisians were not convinced he is worth that amount of money but when the representatives of the winger leaked interest from Pyramids and Raja Casablanca to them they were forced to accelerate things at that price.
Two days after an agreement was reached, Pyramids submitted their first bid which was around $600,000 but at that stage Enyimba have already given their words to Esperance.
However the deal almost collapsed when Raja offered $700,000 but just like it was with the bid from Pyramids, Enyimba respected their agreement with Esperance but went a step further by adding a 20% sell on clause to the deal.
