Dubai: Al Nasr coach Ivan Jovanovic has revealed it was “a big surprise” that Sengelese striker Ebrahima Toure failed to return to the club after the summer break.
Toure, 29, scored 34 goals in 43 appearances for the club after joining from French side Monaco in 2013. But, after guiding Al Nasr to their Arabian Gulf Cup and President’s Cup double last season, he didn’t return to fulfil the final year of his contract.
Al Nasr have since dropped the AWOL star and replaced him with new Brazilian striker Nilmar, but the club are refusing to terminate his contract, leaving the player in limbo until another club buys him out of his misery when the transfer window reopens in January.
“Sometimes players take decisions that only themselves can explain,” Jovanovic said on Wednesday. “That’s the situation for us. It was a big surprise [for us] with him having played in our club over two years.
“But because of the way he is acting it has created problems to the club and to himself. The result is, at the end of camp we needed a new striker and this is not an easy procedure. We had a striker, we didn’t know where he was and when he would return, so we had to find another striker. It’s not easy for us because we’ve had to change how we programmed the team before.”
Asked what the resolution was, with club and player inevitably having to officially cut ties at some point, Jovanovic replied: “I think this is a concern for the board, not us [the coaching staff]. Ebrahima had one more year on his contract, once you have a contract it means you have a contract and due to his contract he has to oblige his commitment as a footballer.”
