Mighty Wanderers president Thomson Mpinganjira says the club snubbed some foreign clubs’ offers for its players because they were “raw deals”.
The business mogul and philanthropist said this during the Nomads’ presidential ball at Golden Peacock in Blantyre on Sunday night.
Mpinganjira, who is the club’s main sponsor, said they do not accept offers just because they are from advanced foreign clubs.
He said among others, they rejected offers from Tunisian and Qatari clubs for winger Wisdom Mpinganjira.
“There were four or five offers for Wisdom, some of them from Qatar and Tunisia, but they were useless,” he said.
“These are advanced countries in football, but they came up with totally useless offers. Some of them would just say the player will be offered allowances and accommodation, just that.”
Mpinganjira said the reason they loaned Wisdom to a top-flight Mozambican league side, Black Bulls ,was because he was desperate for a foreign move.
“I allowed Wisdom to go because he became restless, probably because of his being rated highly to the point of making Africa’s Best XI [of the week],” he said.
Mpinganjira said after going through the offers, he recommended that the player should be loaned to the Mozambican club.
“I said you [Wisdom] can play there [in Mozambique] between January and December and then come back a happy person. I didn’t want him to be unhappy,” he said.
At the time, the Nomads’ director of football David Kanyenda defended the move, saying it was in the best interest of all stakeholders, including the player.
He said such arrangements are common in modern football “and help players gain exposure and experience while also benefitting the club financially”.
