Spartak became the champion of Africa – Sport – Kommersant

Spartak Moscow made one of the most notable transfers of this summer in the Russian Premier League (RPL). The club, which after five rounds in second place in the Russian championship, was joined as a free agent by the Senegalese striker Keita Balde, who, at the age of 27, has experience playing for such well-known teams as Lazio, Monaco, Inter, ” Sampdoria and Cagliari, came to Russia four years ago for the World Cup as part of the Senegal national team, and in February became the African champion.

On signing a contract with Keita Balde Moscow “Spartak” announced on its official website. The agreement with the 27-year-old footballer was concluded until June 2025. It was known in advance that the Senegalese would join the red-white squad with a high probability. This is the first transition under the new owners of the club: on Monday, Leonid Fedun resigned as chairman of the board of directors, and Spartak completely came under the control of LUKOIL.

It is still difficult to assess the immediate prospects for Balde in Spartak. It is clear that it would be very interesting to see the Senegalese in the all-important match against Zenit on September 4, but it is not yet clear whether he will have time to settle into a new place. So far, the career of Balde, who was born in Spain and showed great promise in the youth team of Barcelona, ​​evokes a feeling of understatement. After moving to Lazio, he spent four seasons in Rome (from 2013 to 2017) and scored 26 goals in 110 matches. Then Monaco received the rights to Balda for four years for € 30 million, where he failed to show his best side. The striker had to be loaned to Inter and Sampdoria, and last season Balde played for Cagliari, who eventually dropped out of the top division of the Italian championship.

The striker’s latest statistics are not impressive: in 26 meetings for a team from the island of Sardinia, he hit the opponents’ gates three times. True, in February Balde became the champion of Africa as part of the Senegal national team, but he spent the final part of the tournament on the bench. However, at present, the transition of such a football player is still a notable event for the RPL.

It is possible that Spartak took Keita Balde instead of Shamar Nicholson, the striker of the Jamaican national team, who, after the arrival of the current head coach of the Spaniard Guillermo Abascal, has not enough playing practice. There is information that Nicholson can move to the Turkish Galatasaray, but it has not been officially confirmed.

But even if Nicholson, whose transfer value, according to Transfermarkt, is € 7.5 million, more than twice that of Balde (€ 3 million), signed as a free agent, remains at Spartak, the club will will only win. Indeed, in order to try to compete with the same Zenit in the fight for the championship, the Moscow team needs the so-called depth of the composition, which it clearly lacks. In any case, the recent serious injury of the Nigerian Victor Moses, whom Abascal transferred from defense to the attacking midfield line, made a gap in Spartak’s lineup too obvious to be overlooked. Therefore, it is quite possible that someone else will come after Balde to Spartak.

Evgeny Fedyakov