Former Black Stars defender Samuel Inkoom has finally shed light on the circumstances that led to his worldwide ban by FIFA in 2017.
The right-back was banned from participating in any football-related activities due to a settlement dispute with his former agent Curtis Willer from a transfer deal dating back to 2014.
Inkoom was ordered to pay the World In Motion boss or serve a one-year ban in default, an amount the former FC Basel star failed to raise, leading to an extended sanction by FIFA in May 2018.
In an exclusive interview with Ghanasportspage.com, Inkoom detailed the sequence of events: “It all started with an agent I was working with.
“The contract was coming to an end, so I had a different agent in England who even brought Tottenham’s proposal to my table after our (FC Basel) friendly game against Dortmund. Inkoom explained to ghanasportspage.com
“He came to Switzerland with a rep from Tottenham to watch the game and also our Europa League game against Roma in which I scored.
“Tottenham’s interest was there, but that was the time I had signed with the new agent. However, the old agent brought a deal of $10 million from Ukraine to FC Basel.
“In the history of FC Basel, they had not sold a defender for that amount, so they sat me down and informed me they would accept the offer and asked me to prepare myself to go.
“I spoke to my family and the new agent, and they all agreed I should accept the offer.
“There was an agreement between myself, the new agent, and the old agent that if I joined Dnipro, there’s a commission the new agent had to get.
“So we all came together to make the deal happen, but the old agent refused to give the new agent the agreed commission”
“Every time I called, he’d tell me he had sent everything to him. One day, I asked him to send me records of the transaction to check if it was true so I could forward it to FIFA and also the new agent.
“Later, I got to know there was no transaction. At that time, I was in Turkey with Antalyaspor. I spoke to Samuel Eto’o, who was everything in the team, and explained the situation to him.
“He asked me to see the president of the team, who told me the contract I had with them was even more than what I owed the agent, so they would help me settle it. I even sent the agent some of the money, but he refused to accept it.”
Reflecting on the experience, Inkoom said, “This is the reason why I’ve established my own agency to help young players and advise them on contract signings. I will not say I am happy with what happened, but it has already happened, so I will use my experience to guide the young ones coming up.”
