Banović Chasing
Grilled International would let star striker
Ragib Banović leave for the reigning Ugandan Super League champions Draggen United for ten million dollars, with this being probably the Bosnia and Herzegovina man's last chance at national-level silverware. Banović will soon turn 33 years of age, and while he has just reached the century goal milestone at International after thirteen and a half seasons at the club, he was arguably no closer to true glory than then.
Well, he will now have ample opportunity for that at Draggen, who have won both their national league and cup seven times, with a Supporter Week Trophy to boot. Often outside contenders at the Hattrick Masters too, English head coach Ken Parsons will surely be aiming to better their second round knockout by Scottish Premier side goudi city, for the coming edition.
Parsons clearly has a favourite type up top, with both his former international forwards - America's Leonardo Cuesta and Germany's Martin Christof Liebknecht - being in much the same mould as Banović: big and a constant threat in the air, yet reasonably mobile. Banović's relative youth will be working in his favour as he seeks to displace one of the pair, and with Liebknecht's recurring groin injury requiring surgery that may see him out for a month or more, the International transferee should get his chance to impress.
Didi Reidenbach was not entirely happy to see Banović go, but felt that he could hardly stand in his way. "Let's face it, when you get the call from a club with the pedigree of Draggen, I would be having thoughts too. Ragib's one of us, he has spent almost his entire professional career here, it would be very selfish of us to stand in his way on this."
The unspoken part was that International were going nowhere fast too, Banović or no Banović, and the board might well be willing to cut their losses with this squad, so to speak, and begin anew. If that was so, Reidenbach gave no hint of it. "We still expect to be in the hunt for promotion." he added, not too convincingly. "We have the profile for it."
