Ex Nigeria U17 and 20 defender Lukman Zakari made a shock move to Spanish Laliga side Real Betis from unfancied Latvian side FS Metta, a team that almost dropped to the second division at the end of last season in Latvia.
Zakari joined the team last season but his move happened with just few games till the end of the season, hence he didn’t get to play in any of their remaining games even though he was registered by the team.
Many didn’t know that shortly after he made the move he was few details away from joining champions of Africa Esperance without even kicking a ball for his new team. The move didn’t happen as both teams fail to agree on terms of the deal particularly on the structure of the payment of his transfer fee.
As expected the disappointment made the 21 year old to rebel against the Latvian club but after a method with the management of the team and his team of advisers led by his mentor Mohammed ‘Mowiz ‘ Suleiman he returned back to Latvia to resume his career at Metta.
” I remember Mowiz telling me to give it my all at Metta and forget about what happened in Tunisia that even though Metta isn’t one of the biggest team in the country, I can still standout if I play to my potential. He advised me to make up with my agent, the club and those I offended when the move to Esperance broke down”, Zakari revealed.
The over six feet tall defender did just that and on his debut for the team against Daugavpils he was pivotal to the team winning the game by 1-0 and he followed it up with another man of the match display against Riga even though they lost 1-2.
He took it to another level against Ventspils in his third game for the team which they won 2-0 and earned his third straight man of the match award and team of the week nomination.
News started spreading about his performance particularly his ability to defend and attack when the need arises. So much that against RFS he scored a brace to help them draw 2-2.
A move to MS Ashdod was suppose to happen two months ago but the move came almost same time as the interest from Real Betis who have been tracking him for three months, the same period where he made the team of the week in the league ten times in 13 games.
Scouts of the team watched him and were entirely pleased with his composure on the ball and his ability to play from the back and a move was sharply agreed on and last week he arrived Spain for medicals.
However before leaving Latvia he went into the record books as the first player to appear in the team of the week 17 times in 20 games and his move was also the biggest transfer from the league to a top five league in Europe.
