Dia mystery: Salernitana awaits the striker in France

Boulaye Dia’s return remains a mystery with Salernitana waiting, hoping that the matter can be resolved quickly. The Senegalese footballer is still in France, alongside his wife and his family. They are waiting for him in Salerno, sporting director Morgan De Sanctis is in constant contact with the player’s entourage who, through his agents, has once again reiterated the “personal-family problems”, the same ones he communicated last Monday to motivate the change of travel program and thus postpone his return to Italy to another date, to the disappointment of the managers and the coach.

visits

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The Campania club hopes that the attacker will return to Salerno by the weekend also to subject him to the medical examinations which had already been scheduled at the beginning of the week to assess the extent of the injury suffered by the athlete during training with the national team in Senegal . For now, Salernitana cannot do anything else with the hope that the Dia affair does not turn into a real case, considering the importance of the player for the team, who scored sixteen times last season and one goal in this tournament. An intervention by president Danilo Iervolino, who last week announced that he wanted to meet him to clarify everything, could help resolve any problems. There are many games to play until January and for Sousa having him available is essential. Only after a discussion with Dia will it be possible to decide on other strategies also linked to his possible sale in January even if Dia will be involved in the Africa Cup of Nations. For now, Salernitana is not taking the free agent market into consideration.

fine

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Last Monday, Dia was notified of a fine of around thirty thousand euros (15% of his monthly salary) for failing to comply with the internal regulations. Surprisingly, Dia had not been called up for the away match in Lecce because for Salernitana “he was not emotionally ready like the other teammates”. All this had happened in the hours immediately following the closing of the transfer market after the player’s failed transfer to Wolverhampton. Salernitana had rejected the English proposal (free loan with redemption set at eighteen million) after having invested almost fourteen million to take Dia from Villareal. In July the attacker could have been signed by exercising the release clause set at twenty-five million but no club had come forward, now for Salernitana the valuation is forty million.

the choices

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The attacker’s unavailability inevitably affects Sousa’s choices. In three days there is Torino, in a week Frosinone and the two matches scheduled at Arechi represent the great opportunity to win the first victory after the two draws obtained in the first three days. But Dia’s unavailability could also last longer. There are no certain times, which is precisely why Salernitana had already scheduled new instrumental tests to understand the real recovery times. For the moment Sousa does not seem willing to change formation, next Monday Norwegian Botheim could play, in his second championship with Salernitana but with many anonymous performances and only one goal scored in his Italian experience. The alternative is represented by the Nigerian Ikwuemesi, who arrived in the final days of the transfer window and so far only been used in the final minutes of the match against Lecce. There would also be another hypothesis and it is linked to the “false new” employment of the Cape Verdean Jovane Cabral who, however, has to deal with some physical ailments.