West Ham recently bid farewell to a striker who assumed he would soon be playing European football
When Sebastien Haller left West Ham for Ajax early in January, he would presumably have envisaged making an impact in the Europa League.
The Eredivisie leaders take on Lille in the competition’s final 32 later this month, and their new £20m striker was expected to be a key player in that tie.
Now, however, a bizarre setback has jeopardised his participation in the competition.
Ajax submitted their squad for the round of 32 in time for the February 3 deadline, but with Haller’s name missing.
This appears to have been a mistake from the legendary Amsterdam club, with Dutch outlet AD quoting spokesman Miel Brinkhuis as saying: “He is indeed not on the list, we are trying to find out what went wrong.
“We have contacted the KNVB (Royal Dutch Football Association) and UEFA.”
Haller cost the Hammers £45m when he arrived from Eintracht Frankfurt in 2019, and went on to score 14 goals in 54 appearances for the club.
Since arriving in the Netherlands last month, he’s found the net twice in six games.
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