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Egyptian Premier League club Al Ahly have terminated the contract of Nigerian forward Junior Ajayi, reports Completesports.com.
Ajayi fell down the pecking order at the club following the arrival of South Africa forward Percy Tau and Luis Miquissone and has failed to make a single appearance for Pisto Moaimane’s side this season.
According to a report in Kingfut.com, Al Ahly’s director of marketing and transfers decided to terminate his contract effective immediately, right before the winter transfer window opens.
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The 25-year-old linked up with Al Ahly from Tunisian club CS Sfaxien in 2016 and became an important player for the Reds afterwards.
The versatile striker scored 12 goals and provided seven assists in 39 appearances across all competitions during his first season at the club,
He kept his form for the majority of his stay in Cairo, making a total of 161 appearances and lifting 11 trophies along the way. These titles include four Egyptian Premier Leagues, two Egypt Cups, two Egyptian Super Cups, two CAF Champions Leagues and the CAF Super Cup.
18 Comments
Soldier-on great baller… from being a constant feature in the team to making CAF 11 shortlist in 2017 as the only Nigerian home or abroad… We know what you can do, even though you played on the best team on the continent churning out impressive displays for the Egyptian nights… the arrival of a South African Pitso Mosimane was always going to complicate your lots… if Rohr had been honest with Nigerians, you deserved Super Eagles involvement more than a lot of players who were playing but part roles in their club for a long time… 5years in any club is enough, how a player moved from being a constant feature for a team to not playing at all on the whim of a single coach… You got nothing more to prove pivotal player… Shrug this off and take your trade to where you are needed… In five years all Rohr did was bring stagnation to National Team Careers of players who won’t let him manage them… Anyone reading my comment should go home and to bed with the quote… “He kept his form for the majority of his stay in Egypt” So long! Wishing you the best in the opening winter market…
Hahahahaha valedictory speech…..LMAOOoo. Rohr is again to blame for your client being fired from Alhaly…..LMAOOOo.
Dont worry, He’s only “25 years old” and better than Iheanacho, Dessers and Onuachu combined…..LMAOOooo….he has not even reached his peak yet, he will move to a bigger club in the top 5 leagues in Europe…..LMAOOOo.
Or better still, since Amunike thinks should be in the SE, he can sign him for his club…..LMAOOooo
Jimmyoffside come and carry your brother ooo… So rohr was also the architect of junior ajayi not playing..?
Hahahahaha… LMFAO
South Africans and wickedness are 5 and 6 that is always why they hardly progress especially when they have to do with a Nigerian
Junior Ajayi na baller. He needs now has a chance to move to Europe and play in the English Premer League like Emmanuel Dennis.
@Jimmyball thank you. Rohr became a monster and a thief. He was trying to ruin awoniyi super eagles career too. One of the most bizarre statement I have heard from a coach is: “I don’t think any player will be able able to break into this team again before afcon”
Yet those he had in the team were performing woefully. And those he does not have were doing great.
Junior ajayi move yo Europe. You habe achieved everything in Egypt already. You stayed too long.
You shouldn’t be answering christian ministry because you answering that name you are disgracing the whole christian race. Stop been a racist. Rohr did not rape your loose wife’s. Why accuse Rohr over the downfall of Ajayi? Is now the coach of Al Ahli.
@Ubah I want to let you know that Nigerians are currently more wicked and more racist than the south Africans.
I swear that guy with that Christian name pissed me off. He is the most useless tribalistic person av ever seen.
@arguing at the level of some of you guys is embarrassing. Imagine someone writing “Christian race”… no wonder it’s like some of you think from your posterior orifice…
@JimmyBall please you ego speaks loudly to your ignorance. You speak like you control everything in your life. Keep quiet if you don’t have anything to say.
Arrogance plus ego. Thats what you know.
Talking like everyone should bow to you. Who are you sef?
Junkie on high steroids and ego.
@Ben… Hahaha. Do you belong to the Christian race?
@JimmyBall at least I do not speak with ego and arrogance. But you, it’s running through your veins and blood stream. Adding lies to that.
What a combination.
@Ben… I get you. Trust me I am well brought up and catholic. See… I try to be objective but some people take that for arrogance. I can’t relax on most issues about life but not football. I don’t know it all but I know enough to spot an anomaly.
If you know me in real life you won’t assume the notions you have about me, I wrote about Junior Ajayi, a dilligent, humble and good player… I have followed his career for long and I think he represented Nigeria well at Al Ahly before Pitso Mosimane got there… Ajayi went on a lengthy ankle injury (3months) which he picked up during the last FIFA World Club Cup in which Al Ahly came third and ever since he cake back from injury there were new signings and Mosimane brought in those players… So in a way, Ajayi became surplus to his plans… Now for a player who has done well for Al Ahly playing straight five years… I feel what I wrote above about him is just normal acknowledgement and one well deserved by the player… But did you see @Dr. Drey comment below mine? Look we can’t all see players in same light, for me, there are qualities I look out for in a player because I have played the game and know what is real or fake about players… atleast in my own little knowledge, I can’t be often wrong about players because reality is naked to the eyes… I was the one on CSN who first suggested Amoo, Oladoye, Abraham Marcus, Kelechi Nwakali should have been drafted to the homebased Eagles who played against Mexico months back… I said it here and there was enough time to have made that happen because when I see a player I know one… But because Rohr wanted the homebased to go humiliate themselves against an experienced Mexico A team… he distanced himself because his main players were holidaying and wanted no one bothering them but they were all moving around Nigeria taking pictures with politicians. If we had tested Amoo, Oladoye, Nwakali, Izuchukwu and Marcus for upwards of 65minutes each in that game… We would have an idea about how such players can cope in high profile games by now… so these are the sort of things some of us shout about… No one buys experience from the open market, you earn it by being giving chances and getting the needed practice… So brother. We are all for good of the Super Eagles… When some of us criticized Rohr for continuing to call Ahmed Musa even when he was not playing or had a club, we often mentioned players like Peter Olayinka and Dennis Emmanuel… but before you even post your comment someone will jump you and say: “Who are they coming to bench?” meanwhile we hade evident underperforming players everywhere… One love bro! I am not the least arrogant or egoistic because I call it out as it is…
I don’t owe you a dime, so I type what I typed and communication has been done. One should not be answering christian ministry and be sounding a church of Satan member. The last time I check Rohr did no wrong to anyone personally apart from player agents who wants all their players featured in a single national team, irrespective of whether the team succeed or qualify for tournaments. The heading above has no dealings with Rohr then why bring his name? Is an act of xenophobia, racism and pure hatred.
*sounding like*
After Pitso first season with Al Ahly,he should have left the club ,the coach was never going to change his mind and with the arrival Pacy Tau ,the signals were fully evident that he was never going to bring his fellow country man to his team to bench him.
Goodluck to Ajayi,he is a phenomenal player and he will surely get something better than Al Ahly.He shouldn’t take it personal ,it part of life and a lesson for him .
There is a cap on the number of foreign players in each team in the Egpytian League, one or two had to leave. Since Pitso came, Ajayi had struggled for game time.
Ajayi has always been a good player, but a number of factors have worked against him, career wise.
His arrival in Tunisia and later Egypt at a period his career was having an upward trajectory was for me a poor decision. Whichever agency it was/is that managed him did not do a good job. I strongly believe that Belgium, Turkey, Russia, Holland, Ukraine etc would have been a much better destination for Ajayi than Egypt. This isn’t meant to diminish the quality of play in Egypt, but his performances and PR would have gained much more visibility in any of these destinations than Egypt. At the minimum, he would have featured in Europa league where he would have tested his skills against visible quality opposition.
Secondly,the big guys that take the buying decision in the top leagues will rather buy from the likes of Belgium than Egypt. This for me is a matter of perception and not reality, cuz the quality of play in Egypt is very close to what you get in places like Belgium, Holland and the likes, but the major difference between them is perception.
Moreover, players doing well in North Africa (Egypt & Tunisia precisely) do not come cheap to clubs in Europe. Their selling price in Egypt & Tunisia is almost equal to and in some cases more than the amount they will get a player from a neighboring European country. Check out Julius Aghahowa’s transfer to Ukraine & Mike Eneramo’s transfer to Turkey in this regard. Player transfers between North Africa and Arab countries (Qatar, Saudi, Oman, UAE etc) should be higher than that of North Africa and Europe, if I’m not mistaken. So Ajayi & his agency’s decision to pitch their tent in North Africa might have been a good decision in terms of profitability, but I think in terms of player mobility and upward career trajectory, it was a big risk that backfired.
Ajayi’s heydays at Al Ahly also coincided with an era when competition for places in Super Eagles became very stiff as quality players playing in his position emerged from Europe’s mainstream leagues and feeder teams and within two seasons found their way to Europe’s top 5 leagues. Moses Simon, Samuel Kalu, Samuel Chukwueze etc are samples in this regard and this is just to mention a few. Even when we consider the fact that Ajayi can play in almost all positions in the attack, he still had quality and established competition to contend with in any of those positions while he reigned supreme at Al Ahly; Victor Moses, Ahmed Musa, Odion Ighalo, Victor Osimhen, Alex Iwobi et al. I mean a team where the likes of Anthony Nwakaeme and Simeon Nwankwo hardly got invites, not for lack of quality, but due to stiff competition. So those that asked “who is Ajayi coming to displace” were right if you ask me. To make his matters worse, SE had a coach that rated players performing in top leagues higher than others for obvious reasons, so his exclusion from SE was expected and was never an issue with the majority of Nigerian fans.
Ajayi’s injury, gradual decline in form and the acquisition of more quality strikers by Al Ahly were the final straws that broke the camel’s back for Ajayi. His agency tried to get him another club but those attempts failed. All those sudden media hypes, third party endorsements (from Amuneke) and by fire by force clamour for a Super Eagles invite were attempts to rescue a sinking ship. Truth is, if your form takes a downward trend while playing in North Africa, you will need a whole lot of prayers and effort to get your career back on track ( ask Junior Lokosa, Damien Udeh, Chisom Chiakatara et al).
I sincerely hope and pray that Ajayi gets a good club this winter window, cuz he did so well with Al Ahly when he was in form and still deserves much more achievements from this game. I just hope his agency can be up to the task.
We wish you well on this new adventure Ajayi.