Too little playing time
©IMAGO
This article first appeared on January 5th and was updated with new information after official confirmation on January 6th.
Strasbourg loanee Pape Demba Diop has only played 621 minutes of playing time spread over ten appearances at second division club 1. FC Nürnberg since his move in August. Significantly not enough for the French first division club, who now pulled the ripcord and canceled the deal with the Franconians early – thanks to a special clause that the “Bild” newspaper had already reported on the day before.
The latter could be activated by mid-January and allowed the Ligue 1 club to bring the midfielder back early. In the summer, Strasbourg transferred a transfer fee of 7.5 million euros to Zulte Waregem for the 22-year-old from Senegal and then loaned him out directly to Valznerweiher. The second division team is said to have been informed about the plan by the French at the weekend, who may want to loan out their protégé (contract until 2030) within Ligue 1 for the second half of the season.
“We very much regret Strasbourg’s decision, as we would have liked to continue the loan with Demba. From our point of view, he fit in very well with our existing team. When Demba suffered a strain in his ankle at the end of October, we rested him partly during the phase – in which he was not 100 percent resilient – in order not to take any risks. This of course meant that he had less playing time. However, the approach ultimately led to the club’s owners not being satisfied with the playing time “We were satisfied and therefore made the decision,” explained sports director Joti Chatzialexiou on Tuesday and added: “We wish Demba all the best for his future.”
Diop had recently quadrupled his market value in Nuremberg and, together with Freiburg’s loan player Berkay Yilmaz, was the most valuable player in coach Miroslav Klose’s squad. Since the beginning of October, the club had only suffered two defeats and had worked its way up to eighth place in the table by the end of the year. At the start of the second half of the season there are two trend-setting games: Elversberg and Darmstadt. It is quite possible that Nuremberg will make further improvements in the transfer market in the coming weeks after Diop’s departure.