Sometimes, what a football club president says and what a football club president does are two very different things. In December 2020, Slavia Prague president Jaroslav Tvrdik insisted that he would not let Abdallah Sima leave for a penny less than £50 million amid interest from Premier League outfit West Ham United.
“Several clubs are interested in Abdallah Sima,” Tvrdik said around that time.
“We spoke with the leaders of West Ham. They told us that they place him very high on the list of their potential reinforcements.”
Fast forward to August 2021. Abdallah Sima is packing his things and preparing for a new life in the Premier League. But the London Stadium would not be his destination. Instead, it was Brighton and Hove Albion who won the race for the coveted Senegal international; Sima having shot to fame with 16 goals during his breakthrough season at Slavia, one of those many strikes knocking Leicester City out of the Europa League.
Brighton, meanwhile, paid just £7 million for the privilege. Why West Ham, having previously placed Sima ‘very high on their list of reinforcements’ did not make a more concerted challenge for the striker’s signature is anyone’s guess. Perhaps they doubted whether Sima could emulate the successes Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal; fellow Czech League imports.
One swallow does not make a summer. And one admittedly-excellent season of senior football does not make a reliable centre-forward.
West Ham United wanted Abdallah Sima last year
13 months on, Sima has gone from one of the most coveted young forwards around to something of a forgotten man. At least on this side of the Channel. Now on loan at Angers after a blink-and-you-miss it spell at Stoke City, a long-term groin injury has restricted Sima to just six goalless appearances since becoming a Brighton player over a year ago. Thus, slamming the breaks on his previously outstanding progress.
At least there now appears to be some light at the end of a long and traumatic tunnel. Following an impressive pre-season at Angers, Sima having recently made his first league start since August 2021.
“I hope to be able to introduce you soon to Abdallah Sima,” Angers coach Gerard Baticle said last week. “He is coming back from injury.”
2021 was the year when Sima came of age. 2023, then, could be the year where a player desperate to make up for lost time reminds us all what all the fuss was about in the first place.
“He’s being talked about,” Czech legend Petr Cech said during Sima’s time in the capital. “When a player succeeds at such a young age, starts scoring goals and produces in Europe, clubs take notice. There aren’t many players like this in Europe.
“At his age, he may have some fluctuations. It isn’t easy to play every match in the same way. (But) he is very good physically, especially in terms of speed.”
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