Former captain and goalkeeper of the senior national team of Nigeria Vincent Enyeama has criticised French Ligue 1 side Lille for the way they treated him before his departure from the club in the summer.
Enyeama and ten others were banished from the first team by coach Marcelo Bielsa and the Nigerian who will be 37 year old in August is still finding it hard to understand the rationale behind the decision taken by the club.
He said never has he heard that a team will be paying the wages of a player but the player is not allowed to train with the squad as he witnessed before his decision to leave the club last summer.
According to Enyeama, the club didn’t afford him the chance to say a proper goodbye to the fans of the club he joined in joined in 2011 despite the way they supported him during his stay at the club.
” Lille wanted a fresh start which deserve respect. I will soon be 37 and I understand but the way I was pushed aside, humanly it wasn’t good neither for me nor for the other guys who gave everything for the team like Marko Basa or Rio Mavuba”, Enyeama said.
” We were all disappointed. Marko was one of the best defenders in Ligue 1. Rio gave it all for the club and bang overnight they were apart. They have not been celebrat‎ed by the fans. We did not even pay homage to the team. I could not even say goodbye to the public “, he said.
Although he hasn’t been active for one and half year, Enyeama said because of his age he is not willing to leave his family behind hence his decision to shun offers from teams in Israel and Turkey although he still want to play on.
France is where he will like to continue playing so as to be close to his family but he hasn’t received any offer yet from teams in France but he still remains hopeful of a deal in June as he continue to keep fit by doing personal drills in his house.
