Scores away to Club Brugge on his first start.
The defenders did a good job of holding the defense and the goalkeeper didn't see the ball. Goalkeeper's mistake, I think.Originally Posted by Olé Olé
Kortrijk stayed up with an extra-time playoff win over Lommel today. Afolabi not in the squad - not sure why; he was an unused sub in the first game last week.
But he hasn't played in a month, started in two months, or scored since that goal against Brugge in January.
Has a contract for next season but you wonder how involved he'll be, or if he'll be sent out on loan. 24 now and you feel we have to be close to writing him off as an option for Ireland at any stage
Yes I think we can all but write him off. There are so many ahead of him up front. Everything he's done at senior level before and after Bohemians has been underwhelming. With the slow but steady rise in the quality and depth of our senior squad there's a huge gap between the domestic league and the senior national team again now, so the good run at Bohs, when not backed up by any form overseas, is nowhere near enough by itself.
A few reports linking Afolabi with a season-long loan to Eerste Divisie side, Cambuur.
He's rather amusingly described as a 'superfluous pawn' in the English translation of the article.
https://www.voetbalprimeur.be/nieuws...-kortrijk.html
That translation is fun.
Implication is there's two players - a striker, and Afolabi, who's too crap to be described as a striker.KV Kortrijk lets striker go and sends Afolabi to SC Cambuur'
A "solution"? Crumbs. Good thing it's only a loan deal and not a final solution.KV Kortrijk has found a solution for Jonathan Afolabi.
The solution apparently being to get him the hell out of Kortrijk! I'd imagine he'll be back in Ireland soon enough, was very good in the LoI but that seems to maybe be his ceiling.
Lol. They absolutely roast him.
Hopefully it reads a little less brutally in Dutch.
Loan deal confirmed
https://cambuur.nl/nieuws/jonathan-a...an-sc-cambuur/
Is the standard comparable to LOI? He should be lording it there if he is to build a career on the continent.
There was talk of a Turkish premier division side bidding 500k during the summer which may have been his agent given where he has ended up.
On paper, should be a higher standard than LOI based on size of the clubs - six teams have stadiums with a capacity of 10k or more. Average attendance this season is over 5000 over 20 teams and this is dragged down by academy teams for four Eredivisie teams, whose squads are made up of the best youngsters in Holland. So it's definitely a step up for Afolabi, but one he will have to succeed at if he wants to have a professional career at a high level.
There's only four rounds of games played this season, so you'd expect the early season bump in attendances.
The average attendance in 23/24 was 3,624
The average LOI attendance for it's last complete season, by comparison, 2023 was 3,289, and that included UCD. This season so far it's 3,404.
Seems fairly comparable apart from the finances and a handful of bigger stadiums.
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
I'm seeing an average of 6344 for 23/24, with eight teams having an average larger than Rovers' - https://www.worldfootball.net/attend...e-2023-2024/1/. Finances do matter in terms of the overall quality of the league.
Harsh red card that. Afolabi basically won the game there and then. 23 mins gone, penalty converted and down to 10 men
A couple of LOI journos were discussing on different platforms that Afolabi was being lined up for a move back. Rovers might have been one team considering him. Bohs too.
Didn't matter either way. He has a contract until summer 2026 and it sounds like the inability and/or unwillingness of LOI sides to match the terms of it resulted in Afolabi deciding to hold tough.
Can't blame him in many ways but 3 goals in over 12 months at the age of 24 and 25 isn't exactly setting him up for a bumper contract when he's 26 in the summer of 2026...
Did I hear someone say he's on something mad like 7k a week? Wages in the LOI have ballooned, to the point there's probably a couple lads in the 150-200k range per year, but no one is getting 7k in Ireland just yet
He's right to take the money while he can get it. His next move will be back to Ireland and after his unsuccessful Dutch/Belgian stint I'd imagine that's where he'll stay from there on. However I'd still expect him to be one of the top earners in Ireland on his return based on his record last time around.
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