Tunisian league Champions Esperance Sportive de Tunis have announced the signing of winger Anayo Iwuala from Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) side, Enyimba FC reports reports www.aclsports.com
Iwuala, 22, has been a subject of offers from countless countries in Africa and Europe after his blistering season with the former Nigeria Champions who finished second in the Nigerian league this season.
Esperance who won the CAF Champions League trophy back-to-back in 2018 and 2019 have now won the race to sign the pint sized attacker and took to their social media pages to announce the deal on Monday.
The transfer fee involved, www.aclsports.com learnt is $400,000 which the Tunisian club are expected to pay in installments to the Nigerian giants with the first installment expected to be paid before the player makes his debut for Esperance.
The announcement of Iwuala’s signing comes five days after the Blood and Gold announced that their former defender Radhi Jaidi will be their coach for the next season.
There were late, desperate bids by Pyramids and Raja Casablanca to hijack the deal but it seems Esperance eventually got it over the line.
— Fisayo Dairo (@FisayoDairo) August 9, 2021
Anayo Iwuala of Enyimba joining Esperance of Tunisia with the Aba side inserting certain percentage of sell-on clause in the deal. pic.twitter.com/ciNzFoCGgH
He is expected to earn in the region of $25,000 monthly in Tunisia with slight increments in every season of his three-year contract. That is about twenty times he earned while at Enyimba.
Two other North African sides Raja Casablanca of Morocco and Pyramids of Egypt threw in sumptuous late bids for the winger but it proved too little too late.
Iwuala joined Enyimba in 2019 from NPFL side Delta Force and played with the People’s Elephant for two seasons and was the team’s stand out player in the just ended 2020/2021 season during which he earned a national team invite.
He made his Nigeria debut against Benin Republic in Porto Novo last March now has five caps for the senior national team and was captain of the side that lost to Mexico in Los Angeles on July 3, 2021.
