Christian Kouame has been speaking to HLN about Crystal Palace, as he reveals he nearly joined the Eagles back in 2019.
What’s the story?
Well, the 24-year-old came extremely close to joining the south Londoners almost three years ago.
Kouame said: “You know, I was about to sign with Crystal Palace at the end of 2019. The Premier League is a league I dream of, just like the Bundesliga. But my severe cruciate ligament injury, which I suffered at the Ivorian Under-23, threw a spanner in the works.”
Now, that must’ve been devastating for the 10-cap Ivory Coast international.
Steve Parish even admitted that a £10m bid had been accepted by Genoa for Kouame, before his Premier League dream was crushed.
Eventually, Crystal Palace brought Michy Batshuayi to Selhurst Park on loan for the remainder of that 2018/19 campaign, after the Ivorian’s injury.
Where is Christian Kouame now after Crystal Palace move fell through?
Football is known as the beautiful game, but it can also be a seriously cruel sport at times.
Kouame was inches away from achieving his Premier League dream, but now, he has a huge amount of work to get back to where he was.
After his move to England collapsed, Kouame joined Fiorentina, where things have gone from bad to worse.
The Abidjan-born forward – who shares a birthplace with Wilfried Zaha – is now on loan at RSC Anderlecht in Belgium, where he’s scored four goals in 13 Jupiler Pro League appearances this season.
Kouame was loaned out after scoring just three goals in 43 appearances for Fiorentina.
It was a brave of them to take a risk on Kouame after his injury, but sadly, it didn’t exactly pay off for Fiorentina.
Now, the Ivorian will unfortunately sit and wonder ‘what if’ in regards to his proposed move to SE25 which never happened.
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