EXCLUSIVE: Caught up in a Quagmire, Diagne Willing to Stay Put at “Nightmarish” Brugges

Diagne cuts a desolate figure but will have to stay on with Club Brugges of Belgium in whose line up he may likely not break into owing to an ongoing beef with his gaffer.

The Senegalese international was one of Europe’s most sought-after goal-plundering gem prompting Galatasary to feel it’s only right to have the league’s highest goal-getter in their books.

In no time the deal was sealed and delivered before table-topping Club Brugges clamoured for his services on loan. They had their wish granted. However, what was tailored to only enhance the forward’s further growth crumbled spectacularly.

The fallout was engineered by the number’s ten refusal to hand over penalty duties in Brugges’ slender loss to PSG in the Champions League to the consternation of coach Philippe Clement last November.

Fans didn’t take the West African’s antics lightly either, more so after he’d scuppered what could have been an equalizing spot-kick effort.

He has since been fell out of favour and has become not only peripheral but synonymous to limited playing minutes as evidenced by the six times he has gotten benched, starting just once regardless of his impressive four goals.

Considering his status, an exit agitation would have been engineered and hence sealing return to his parent club.

However, the situation he is caught up in has morphed into a complex surgery to mount on.

A further complication is that he has starred for two different clubs in one season and thus can’t play for a third in Europe leaving him at the mercy of Phillipe; who, from the look of things, harbour zero intentions of reintegrating him to the fold, at least not when his Brugges’ charges are scoring and are poised for the title.

In a last-ditch effort at scaring Clement into softening his stance, Galatasary bluffed they would lodge a complaint to FIFA, equating the attacker’s quagmire to “death”.

The announcement instigated a reaction from Brugges who claimed in a dispatch that they’re in close contact with the Turkish club where the player temporarily returned to sort out “some problems”.

Ducor Sports kept a close tab of the star’s developing case with latest reports from Brussels suggesting he risks being alienated from joining Brugges’s A-team for training.

However, there appears a twist to the issue with the striker now willing to stay put at his “nightmarish” current employers until season’s end, having turned his back on a proposal to return to China.

It was thought the Chinese offer would do but the Taranga Lions’ poacher has his gaze on a place in gaffer Aliou Cisse’s team for the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers who is spoilt for choice with an avalanche of options in that department.

Plans of a dialogue between Diagne and Clement look on the cards to resolve the stand-off if the Record’s interview with the 28-year-old is anything to rely on.

“I did indeed arrive in Istanbul to settle some administrative problems before leaving for Bruges in two days to continue my training. The contract that binds us is for a season,” he is quoted as saying.

“It has been agreed that I will return to Brugges to train properly with my teammates. If the coach decides to change, it would be good for everyone. But if he decides to maintain his (current) position, there is nothing we can do.

“We will then stay until the end of the season. I don’t want to go to China or to another continent. My goal is to stay in Europe, play, to find my best level. I had several offers. But, we said that there is no question of going to this direction,” he said.