Stade Rennais Technical Director Florian Maurice has disclosed why his outfit fought so hard to sign Ajax target Kamaldeen Sulemana.
According to him, the Ligue 1 needed to strengthen their attack and saw the Ghanaian sensation at the best option to form a solid partnership with Belgium forward Jeremy Doku.
The 19-year-old has penned a five-year deal with the Brittany-based club from Danish side FC Nordsjaelland.
He was expected to join Dutch Champions, Ajax but the deal fell through
“We wanted to strengthen our attack. He is a player capable of evolving both on the sides but also in the axis. He scores goals and knows how to make the last pass. He has enormous qualities, he has speed and percussion. He can make differences. It was important for us to bring an additional offensive weapon to the team.
He added that “This is good news for the club. He is a great recruit because he is a player who was in demand. We managed to do what was necessary to attract him to Rennes. Which at the beginning was not necessarily something obvious. We were in competition with clubs like Ajax and others in the Premier League. We show that we are able to attract players of this standing. It is a satisfaction for the whole club.
“I have known him since he was in Denmark. He’s a player we’ve followed all season. Now he will have to work and get up to speed because he does not know the Ligue 1 Uber Eats. It’s a tough championship.
It’s up to him to integrate well. He has some notions of French so it can go quite quickly. ”
The highly-rated youngster had a stellar campaign with Nordsjaelland in the Danish Superliga last season having scored 10 goals and provided 8 assists in 29 appearances.
He has two caps for the Ghana national team after making his debut in October 2020 in international friendlies against Mali and Qatar.