Ivory Coast and CSKA Moscow striker Seydou Doumbia has set the Russian Premier Liga alight this year, totally outshining his famous strike partner Wagner-Love by scoring 22 goals in 27 games (not quite Van Persie statistics, granted) and also notching up 8 assists.
The Ivory Coast striker, who also has two braces in this years Champions League, rose to prominence after being the top scorer and best player in the Swiss Pro League for two years in a row with Young Boys Bern and despite only signing for CSKA last year, he’s already talking up chances of a big-money move to the Emirates:
”From childhood I’ve dreamed of England, but CSKA plays at a very high level. I’m very happy here. If Arsenal want to buy me, they must first talk to CSKA, then perhaps I’ll be allowed to go.”
Now having seen the transfers over the summer and as we all know from experience, generally when players talk up potential moves themselves there’s not a lot of substance in their words. Not only would Doumbia, who is contracted until 2015, cost in excess of £20million, he has actually talked about another English club regarding a move:
”I am very interested in playing in the English league. Harry Redknapp is a coach African players love, so who knows? It is only paper talk at the moment. I want to make a name for myself in the Russian league and in the Champions League as well, the rest will come once I am playing very well. My dream is to play in the Premier League, everyone knows that.”
I’m not sure how many African players love Harry Redknapp, especially considering they don’t have any Ivorian players and currently have a total of three including Adebayor on loan. Regardless of this, the chances of Doumbia in the Premier League may be high considering his admittedly impressive statistics but the chances of him at Arsenal look very slim.
