Bundesliga clubs are thanking the gods they decided against a move for Naby Keita last summer, with the Liverpool man now out in the cold at Werder Bremen.
Sport BILD cover the midfielder today and how he’s one of the ‘biggest flops’ and one of the ‘biggest scandal professionals’ in the club’s 125-year history.
They explain that after he boycotted a game against Bayer Leverkusen on April 14th, Werder Bremen went in hard, suspending the midfielder until the end of the season and handing him a record punishment of €125,000.
That’s the fourth highest in the history of the division, falling behind Rafinha, Diego and former Liverpool teammate Sadio Mane, who was hit with a €350,000 fine after hitting Leroy Sane last season.
Keita’s fine is in response to his refusal to travel for the game against Leverkusen, which just added to the frustration with the former Liverpool man, who has spent most of the season out injured and was no longer part of their plans anyway.
That’s annoyed the player, who has become a loner that even Werder’s psychologists have not been able to help.
Two days after the scandal he was summoned for crisis discussions and while the former Liverpool man apologised, it was all too late.
He’s since been told that his contract, which runs until 2026, will be cancelled in the summer and he’ll have to spend the rest of the season away from the team and training alone.
It’s a sorry end to a deal the German side had once been excited about but has also left other Bundesliga teams feeling vindicated.
The likes of VfB Stuttgart and Eintracht Frankfurt had shown interest, but they cancelled any proposal after looking at his data and determining he wasn’t going to work in the Bundesliga anymore.
They deducted he was ‘too slow, too prone to injury and long past his peak’ and that’s been proven correct, with Werder’s decision to sign him going from ‘spectacular transfer’ to ‘spectacular flop’ and scandal.
