After the arrival of Vincent Janssen and Toby Alderweireld, Antwerp continues to aim high for the mercato. For example, Adnan Januzaj, in contrast to his predecessors still in the prime of his career, could well become the next Red Devil to set course for the Bosuil. In the meantime, another, slightly less well-known target is about to join the offensive compartment of the number one tribe. Although the Great Old himself thinks he knows Arbnor Muja all too well. A big mistake?
In recent weeks, the 23-year-old Kosovaar of FC Drita gave his future employer a match in the preliminary round of the Conference League. Muja did not score in that double confrontation, but apparently the Antwerp board was already convinced after the first part. Shortly after the return match, in which the right-footed winger again regularly managed to create danger, their Kosovar counterparts suddenly announced that a deal was in the making. In the meantime, Muja has already set foot in our country to undergo a medical examination. Once that formality has been completed and all signatures have been placed, the official announcement can follow at any moment.
REPLACEMENT BENSON?
Marc Overmars, whose network did not exactly play a role here, will soon have a replacement for Manuel Benson. Although Paul Gheysens dreams earlier of Januzaj to take his vacated place in the front right. In anticipation of a breakthrough in that file, or another available clapper, Muja will not receive a basic place as a gift. After all, Mark van Bommel has plenty of options on the flanks. Michel-Ange Balikwisha is the titular on the left, who also favors the recently recovered Viktor Fischer. Possibly shifts from them to the other side, where Koji Miyoshi and the recently debuted yet very young newcomer Anthony Valencia are the alternatives.
They almost all have more beautiful letters of nobility than Muja, who can play on both flanks – although he is more often on the right than on the left, considering the competition perhaps an asset. However, his stats during his one season with Drita with eight goals and 10 goals in 30 appearances don’t look wrong. Muja also submitted quite nice figures for his training club KF Trepca, just like with the German fifth division Eintracht Braunschweig II. A short-lived adventure in Albania at KF Skënderbeu, on the other hand, turned out to be a fizzle. At the age of 23, Muja, not even international, has everything to prove. He will soon be introduced to a higher level for the first time.
LEMAJIC & SATURDAY
It is very reminiscent of the way AA Gent ‘discovered’ Darko Lemajic a year ago on his way to the Conference League. Or how Club Brugge in a more distant past promptly broke free of Waldemar Sobota at the damned Slask Wroclaw. The Pole then fell completely through the basket, Lemajic deserves another chance but also struggles with the big step higher. Shopping at a European opponent, certainly one of lesser caliber, therefore does not seem the best idea. Both teams did find Michael Ngadeu and Simon Deli after they had knocked Genk, who himself once saw Paul Onuachu play with Midtjylland against Club Brugge, together from the Europa League with Slavia Prague.
They were all older than Maju when they arrived in Belgium, some not international either. The success stories of Ngadeu, Deli and Onuachu – just like the Bruges drama with Michael Krmencik, by the way, with Viktoria Plzen against Antwerp six months earlier – do not quite fit into the picture here. Not only were their former employers not direct opponents of their next destinations, the jump from a top Czech or Danish club to our own league was less big for them. Also the hefty sums that Gent, Club and Genk paid for the foursome are of a completely different order than the meager one million for Sobota and Lemajic.
ROMANTICS VS SKEPTICS
The exact price tag of Muja is unknown for now, but its market value is estimated at barely a quarter of a million. The status with which Muja enters the Antwerp dressing room full of stars is therefore extremely limited. The question marks all the more. Can the globetrotter, who never stays in one place for long, convince the doubters? Or does Antwerp, itself only just back on the European stage, fall into the same trap as Club and AA Gent? So, on the basis of a first impression and without extensive scouting, we set out too quickly, whereby the negotiations in this case even went very smoothly. Romantics no doubt call it love at first sight, skeptics a hasty decision. Wait and see who is right.
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