New twist to Babatunde Adepoju deal
Mighty Wanderers Chairperson Chancy Gondwe has alleged that forward Babatunde Adepoju is still contracted with the club despite signing for rivals Nyasa Big Bullets.
The Nigerian forward shocked the football fraternity on Thursday when his transfer was announced at Bullets after indicating that his Nomads contract expired on June 30.
Gondwe alleged that Babatunde signed a Wanderers contract on June 4 in 2019 which expires tonight [July 3 2021].
“He is our player until July 4 2021 and no team should have signed him before the mentioned date,” he said
Gondwe warned that Bullets must pay Wanderers or the player will not be cleared for the rest of the season.
“We expect Bullets to contact us and open negotiations over the player’s transfer fee. We will not issue a clearance and he risk missing out for the remainder of the season. We will still get something even if we did not want to extend his contract. Players come and go but we demand justice here,” he said.
“Further to that, he cannot play for the rest of the season. We have Chester precedent in place. Chester came to Wanderers as a free agent but Fam did not allow us to register him because the transfer window had been closed. So this will apply.”
Babatunde insisted that he was a free agent.
“I signed a 30 months contract which Wanderers did not extend. I was a free agent hence signing for Bullets,” said the former hitman for disbanded Masters Security.
Bullets Chief Administration Officer Albert Chigoga dismissed Wanderers claims dubbing them as a ‘mere joke’.
“We are a big team in this country and we do not do things for the sake of it. We analysed the players contract and saw it fit before signing him as a free agent. I hope those alleging that the player is still theirs have shown you a copy of the said contract,” Chigoga said.
However, Football Association of Malawi (Fam) Transfer Matching System Manager, Casper Jangale, said they were yet to be officially contacted by Bullets on Babatunde’s transfer.
“We have not been officially contacted by Bullets over the player so our hands are tied,” he said.
Babatunde joined Wanderers from the defunct Masters Security and finished as Wanderers top goal scorer in 2019 with 13 goals.
He has emulated the footsteps of Yasin Osman, Meck Mwase, MacDonald Yobe and most recently Precious Sambani by trading the blue jersey for red.
Peter Fote is a Sports Journalist with huge experience in radio and Television reporting, production and presentation. He once worked with Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) and is currently working for Times Media Group.
