Asante Kotoko head of Administration and Legal Affairs lawyer Samuel Sarfo Duku have revealed talks with the club’s star striker Sogne Yacouba over renewal of his contract with the club, and the responses from representatives of the player is very positive.
Yacouba has a contract with Kotoko which runs till April 2020 but talks of renewal over the past months broke down over what seemed to be a slight disagreement between the parties. The Burkinabe forward went for holidays in his hometown and to continue his recovery from injury, but overstayed his permitted holiday period which triggered a written caution from the club to him before he arrived in camp a week ago.
The club and the player have endured a rocky relationship for sometime now as reports say Yacouba has been forcing a move away from the Baba Yara stadium. According to lawyer Sarfo, Yacouba has apologised to Kotoko for overstaying his holiday period and the club has put a new offer on the table for him to which he’s giving positive responses.
“As for us (Kotoko) we would like to continue with him, we’ve put before him a proposal that he should renew his contract with us, but the response coming is positive, meaning per what I’m seeing and what I’m hearing means he would like to do so”, Sarfo Duku told reporters on Friday at the club’s 2019/2020 new kits unveiling ceremony at the Manhyia Gardens.
Addressing the issue of friction between the parties, lawyer Sarfo stated that the player has given reasons why he kept long at home and those are plausible reasons and that the club holds no grudge with him.
“We don’t want to stretch with him that’s why we warned him to be careful, he also quickly apologised for keeping long at home, this and that are why I kept long at home and whatever he said too was plausible, we’ve forgiven him, now we hold nothing against him. We cautioned him, he swiftly came to apologise and we’ve accepted”, he concluded.
