Ghanaian midfielder Baba Alhassan has applauded Romanians for their nice hospitality after spending two years playing football in the European country.
The 23-year-old has been one of the season’s surprise packages. Alhassan has been a standout, with the midfielder leading the top scorer’s chart with four goals.
His goals have inspired newly-promoted Hermannstadt to a great start in the Romanian Liga 1. They are third with an unbeaten record.
“If we exclude the financial problems, the fact that we are almost three months late in the salary at the end of August, I can say that it is a beautiful experience. It’s a pity that not only at Hermannstadt, but also at other teams in Romania, there are big financial delays. And the fact that you don’t get your money on time gives you a lot of stress. You can’t think normally, sleep normally, you need money to pay for one thing or another.”
“There are people who want to help you. Skin colour never mattered, I was always treated fairly in Romania. People in Transylvania are calm, with a positive mentality, more peaceful. Sibiu is a cool city. I like it a lot, compared to other cities like Bucharest and Cluj, which are more congested and noisier. I also lived in Spain for two years, but I like Romania, I appreciate the calm lifestyle in Sibiu,” Alhassan said.
He added; “Two things upset me. One, I said, the fact that there are salary delays in football, although we, those from Hermannstadt, showed that we are strong characters, we promoted our team to League 1, then we took it to 3rd place in the ranking, and the lack of money, for the work done, is annoying. Two, the roads are a disaster in several areas of the country, to drive 7 hours for a match a few hundred kilometres seems too much to me. I don’t like taking the shape of the coach seat. These are the two bad experiences for me, otherwise about people, only good.”