French club Amiens are understood to have rejected the latest offer for Bongani Zungu.
The Bafana Bafana midfielder was believed to be close to switching to Espanyol in Spain with his parent club still needing to approve the move to the Spanish LaLiga after Zungu made it clear he wanted out!
Espanyol secured their return to LaLiga earlier this year and are obviously recruiting players the club feels will improve their squad in the topflight this season – Zungu is one of their priority targets.
Given that Amiens, who were relegated in May last year to the second tier of French football, have seen their budget cut as a result and that Zungu is in the final year of his contract, the logic step is to cash in on the player.
However, it’s understood Amiens want Espanyol to at least meet their adjusted evaluation of the players, which is now said to be around R44-million or there’s no deal that will go through.
It’s an adjusted price from the initial R77-million a year ago, which was also brought down to R54-million during talks between Rangers and Amiens for Zungu’s services at the time.
The player spent the previous season on loan in Scotland, but the option to buy him outright was not triggered by the eventual league champions led by Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard.
Indications are that there’s also interest in Zungu from the Gulf region, but the player wants to explore the interest in Europe first.
His agent, Badara Wague, told the Siya crew recently that Zungu did not want to play in the second division in France, but would honour the contract until June next year if Amiens did not wish to sell.
Zungu can sign a pre-contract Janaury, but that’s a risk for Amiens because he would then leave for nothing.
It now remains to be seen whether Espanyol, or any other club for that matter, will up the ante and tabled a bid in the region of R44.5-million to get their man.
