Many Everton fans will see new £13.5m signing Oumar Niasse as a blank slate.
The Senegalese striker, who has joined the Toffees from Lokomotiv Moscow, is an unknown quantity for many in the UK.
But that’s better than the reputation he enjoys in Norway, where he couldn’t even get a game for SK Brann’s second string in the third-tier.
BREAKING: Forward Oumar Niasse has completed a £13.5million move to Everton from Lokomotiv Moscow. #WelcomeOumar pic.twitter.com/9R1C8z39Cz
— Everton (@Everton) February 1, 2016
‘Hands up those who saw it coming! No one at Brann Stadium is close to moving their arms,” Norwegian journalist Anders Pamer wrote in Brann’s local paper Bergens Tidende.
‘I saw nothing in him. He seemed limp and half-interested,‘ Pamer added.
‘Never in the world would I have thought three-and-a-half years later he would arrive at Goodison Park as one of the club’s most expensive player ever. Never! But I was wrong, and Brann was wrong.’
Do you remember Oumar Niasse? He played 3 games for Brann in 2012 Today he's rumored to sign for Everton in a £13,5M deal!
— SK Brann English (@SKBrann_EN) February 1, 2016
Niasse was on loan, but Brann had an option to make the deal permanent. He didn't start a single game for the first team.
— SK Brann English (@SKBrann_EN) February 1, 2016
Brann didn't make the deal permanent, so he returned to Senegal. In 2013 he joined Turkish side Akhisar Belediyespor.
— SK Brann English (@SKBrann_EN) February 1, 2016
In 2014 he was sold to Russian Lokomotiv Moscow for about €5.5M. In Brann he was barely good enough for the second team.
— SK Brann English (@SKBrann_EN) February 1, 2016
Niasse would not be the first superstar to prove people wrong after a slow start to his career.
Southampton frontman Graziano Pellè didn’t hit double-figures for a top-flight team until the age of 27, only to then fire home 80 goals in three-and-a-half seasons.
Even more sensationally, an official at Edin Džeko’s first club claimed he believed they’d “won the lottery” after receiving a €25,000 bid for the player – six years later he’d be joining Manchester City for 1,000 times that amount.
Was Niasse a poor player in Norway? It certainly seems so, but it looks like Everton are buying a very different player to the one who flopped at Brann.
