Nigeria defender Kenneth Omeruo has admitted he is happy to have cut ties with Chelsea for a move to La Liga outfit, Leganes this summer.
Omeruo joined Chelsea from Belgian club, Standard Liège in 2012 but he never played in an official game for the Blues.
He was first loaned out to Eredivisie club ADO Den Haag and spent time on loan at Middesbrough as well as Kasimpasa and Alanyaspor in the Turkish Super Lig.
Omeruo finally secured a permanent move to Leganes this summer after impressing on loan last season.
“Every year I thought it was the opportunity to play for Chelsea, but in the end, it didn’t come. So, last season I told them, ‘Let me go play in LaLiga and see if I have the quality ,” Omeruo told AS.
“I had several options, but the coach at the time (Mauricio Pellegrino) gave me a lot of confidence and told me that he wanted me to stay.
“The club made an effort to sign me. I didn’t think they could buy me from Chelsea, but they got me.”
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Omeruo – Cat With 9 Lives
One of the best thing to happen to any footballer is to play under a coach who has confidence in him: such a player will thrive.
We see players like Taiwo Awoniyi, Nwakali and Henry Onyekuru struggling at the moment; not that they are not good enough but because they are playing under coaches who do not seem to see them as good enough.
Indeed, for many seasons Omeruo was quite nomadic going from club to club without being settled, something that affected his national team career at the time.
However, arriving at Leganes, it was clear that he was in a place where he belongs.
“I had several options, but the coach at the time (Mauricio Pellegrino) gave me a lot of confidence and told me that he wanted me to stay, ” said Omeruo in the article above, and stayed he did to enjoy his football whilst reviving his national team career.
His revival and the limited chances of Balogun in Brighton led to the tearing down of the Oyinbo wall in the Super Eagles as Omeruo partnered Ekong at the 2019 Afcon.
Mikel Agu also had similar problems but he also seems settled in Vitoria SC.
Omeruo has played 9 league games this season with an average overall rating of 6.61/10. The match he rated highest was against Real Betis in August when he rated 7.1.
Although he lost his automatic place to Semi Ajayi in recent matches for the Super Eagles, I have a feeling that Omeruo will fight tooth and nail to regain this, after all, he has been in this position before!
Only an injury to either of ezong or ajayi would disintegrate the new central pairing… Ajayi has so much develop himself, he is currently one of the best defenders in English championship and very likely he would taste epl matches soon,, when last did we have a defender playing in epl I think yobo was the last we had if I’m not mistaking.. Ajayi would break that spell.. This shows how far he has come..
Omeruo has alot to do in terms of developing himself he looks error prone for me but although a very good defender.
Well said @ololo. We are lucky to have Ekong, Ajayi, Omeruo, Balogun, Awaziem available for centre defence. Even Thiago Ilori, hoping he switches. But Ekong/ Ajayi pairing looks the real deal for now, not a pinch of doubt about that. Great chemistry. Can’t wait to see Ajayi in the premiership next season. He is just one English born nigerian player that had his mind made up for nigeria right from his teen.