Like him or loathe him, hardly has any footballer in the recent history of Sierra Leone been a fan favourite like Musa Tombo. His prowess on the field has been phenomenal. A back-to-back golden boot winner for two clubs in the country’s top league.
That notwithstanding, the goal-scoring maestro has had several issues (mainly off-field) with his club, Bo Rangers FC, which led to the Premier League back-to-back champions terminating his contract on 31 August 2022.
Following that severance, Musa immediately traveled to Libya in an effort to join a certain club known as Al-Ittihad.
However, upon his arrival in the North African nation, things didn't go as planned. He had a myriad of concerns regarding his sojourn in the country mainly security, and vowed not to honour his 'contract' until those concerns had been adequately addressed. In fact, it is alleged that he even threatened to harm himself if he wasn't allowed to return to his home country.
Musa was later allowed to return home as the club was cognisant of the bad publicity they would attract if he was to carry out his threat. His return home became a public discourse especially as he began exhibiting apparent signs of a mental health challenge including running in his birthday suit in full glare of the public a grave self harm. His situation became worrying, and he needed help. Then came in the Bo Rangers Manager, Babadi Kamara, whose sole objective was to save Musa’s life and rescue his promising career from crumbling.
Babadi immediately reached out to Al-Ittihad to secure the services of Musa. A mouthwatering season-long loan deal was struck; Musa was going to kick the round leather once again in our top flight league for Bo Rangers until the end of June 2023.
The season-long loan to Bo Rangers ended with three matches left for the end of the league. Following this, Al-Ittihad immediately requested Musa to return to Libya to see out his 'contract'. However, Musa has stated categorically that he is not returning to Libya, reiterating his earlier concerns raised.
In a bizarre twist earlier, Musa had traveled to Europe three times and returned on all those occasions. In those instances, however, he was released unconditionally by the clubs, apparently because of his peculiar situation. Sadly, the same can't be said of the Libyan side who continue to demand their pound of flesh from Musa. They have refused to extend his loan to Bo Rangers and are demanding $200,000 for a permanent sale for a player they didn't pay a dime for.
Bo Rangers are not inclined to pay such an amount for Musa even though their Chairman may want to rescue Musa's career. In effect, Musa is going to be denied the opportunity of representing Bo Rangers in the CAF Champions League for the second consecutive season due to a stalemate with the Libyan outfit.
This is a litmus test for our football authorities including the new Minister of Sports. This is the case of a talented albeit mercurial player who was apparently hoodwinked into a 'contract' by an agent Ronald Okokobe who, like almost all football agents, is only interested in money - in this case Musa’s money.
Musa's issue deserves escalation to football governing bodies like CAF and even FIFA. It is probably akin to budding unsuspecting African kids who are taken to Europe by greedy people on the promise of footballing success, just for them to be abandoned in slave-like conditions.
Our authorities should protect this young lad from exploitation. Clearly he is a victim! He desires to play at home and for now that seems to be his best interest. And that must be respected!
It is hoped therefore that Musa's issue will be resolved in the best interest of the player. So that he wins and, by extension, Sierra Leone wins
Copyright © 2023 Politico (31/07/23)
