The definition of a nomadic striker, Habib Habibou has played for clubs all around Europe, from France to Belgium, with a brief stop in England, followed by Turkey, Qatar and now Israel.
Currently at Maccabi Petah Tikva, the 31-year-old sat down with La Nouvelle Gazette in Belgium to discuss his career so far, where he briefly touched on his Leeds spell.
However, that’s not what interests us here, but what happened, or should we say didn’t happen, prior to the Elland Road move, as he was wanted by West Ham and Queens Park Rangers in 2013.
Needing to go out on loan to get some minutes under his belt away from Zulte Waregem, the striker was seemingly offered to the Hammers and the Loftus Road based club.
He said: “During my career, I’ve had many loans, some because of injuries after which I needed time elsewhere to get some minutes. There was notably those famous aborted transfers to West Ham and QPR, which led me to finally end up on loan at Leeds.”
Why the transfers to Upton Park and Loftus Road failed isn’t revealed, but those two clubs ended up missing out on Habibou, who spent six months in the north of England instead.
His stay there was largely forgettable, featuring just four times, only one of which was a start.
Maybe West Ham and QPR dodged a bullet there.
