Sunusi Ibrahim
The Chairman of Nasarawa United, Barr. Isaac Danladi has debunked insinuations that the club has received N30m for the transfer fee of Sunusi Ibrahim, adding that Ibrahim was no longer their player as at the time of the deal, therefore, there was no how they could benefit from the deal.
Core Reporters gathered that the Major League Soccer outfit, Montreal Impact which announced the signing of the 18-year-old Nigerian in January 2021 from 36 Lions FC in an undisclosed fee had allegedly remitted a portion of the transfer fee to the Lafia based Nigeria Professional Football Club side.
Nasarawa United’s Chairman, Barr. Isaac Danladi
But Danladi insisted that there was nothing like that because the said player (Ibrahim) was no longer with the club, so there was no how they could have benefited from his transfer.
According to Danladi, “We did not receive any money for Ibrahim’s transfer; it is the work of our detractors, those who want to pull us down by all means even when we’ve not done anything wrong to them. Ibrahim left Nasarawa United to another club on a free transfer so why the noise about us receiving N30m transfer fee?”
“Assuming the money was given to us as they claimed, is it not in the club’s account that they will send it to, please go find out yourselves if they are anything of such or is it possible that a club like CF Montreal will send such money to a personal account?
“They came to us to sign a transfer document which we did because even if we’ve turned it down, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will definitely sign it for him, so why do we turn it down?” Danladi queried.
Meanwhile, Ibrahim joined Nasarawa United on January 1, 2019, from an unknown club and left Nasarawa Utd on January 11, 2021, to 36 Lions FC and in same January 12, 2021, a day after he left 36 Lions FC ( a none league club) to his new club, CF Montreal.
It was further gathered that since the club is funded by the state government, the alleged N30m should have been presented to the state governor (Engineer Abdullahi Sule) who is the financier of the club, but was alleged that a few board members and the chairman allegedly diverted the money.
Usually, clubs that coach players between the ages of 12 and 23 are due compensation for their efforts if the player goes on to become a professional.
Also, it’s established that, when a player is transferred, the club that signs the player has the obligation to divide 5% of the value of the transfer amongst the clubs that trained the player between the ages of 12 and 23.
But in Ibrahim case, he spent two seasons with Nasarawa United, left the club for 36 Lions barely 24 hours before he signed for Montreal in an undisclosed fee.
Although, several European clubs were interested in him as well because of his exploit in Nasarawa United. But the fast and powerful striker who can also play on the wings joined fellow Nigerian players in Montreal.
Ibrahim who was linked with a move to English Championship Watford – shot into the limelight with Nigeria Professional Football League side Nasarawa United.
There, he finished as the joint-top scorer of the abridged Nigerian top-flight season having scored 10 times in 22 league outings in the 2018-19 campaign.
