AFC Bournemouth attacker Hamed Traorè has joined Italy’s Serie A champions Napoli on loan until the end of the season.
The 23-year-old joins Napoli with the squad currently eighth and looking ahead to a knock-out fixture with Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League.
However, Traorè is expected to be unavailable for “some time” after he was hospitalised after contracting Malaria in November.
International to miss African Cup of Nations after recovering from Malaria
The Ivorian international is unfortunately missing the African Cup of Nations due to his ill health and will now be focussing on returning to full fitness for his loan move to Italy.
Bournemouth winger Hamed Traore is travelling to Rome this morning for further medical tests for Napoli 🛫
A loan agreed with an option to buy at £21.5 million was agreed between the clubs over the weekend 💰 pic.twitter.com/WgjhzCPSjc
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) January 16, 2024
🍒 Traore loan to Napoli confirmed.
Interesting to see when he gets game-time. Was not expected to be fit to play for a few weeks yet.
Either way, club have done some really good deals recently, but fair to say this is a big-money move that looks like it’s not worked out. #afcb
— Tom Crocker (@TomCrockerEcho) January 17, 2024
Less than 12 months ago AFC Bournemouth secured the loan signing of Hamed Traorè from Sassuolo with a view to making the move permanent in the summer, which would be finalised after the Cherries secured their top-flight status at the end of last season’s campaign. Even though Traorè had been limited to 7 appearances (5 starts), due to injury (429 minutes) in the Premier League.
The deal was worth up to £21 million if add-ons were triggered.
This season the 23-year-old has added a further 6 appearances in all competitions to his Cherries career tally, even bagging his first Cherries goal in the Football League Cup.
However, he has been limited to just 3 substitute appearances in the Premier League totaling 45 minutes.
Football Italia have reported that Napoli hold an option to buy for €25million at the end of the deal, with Sky Sports reporting a similarly priced deal.
Your say…
Sorry Roger wrote…
Time was, our misfits and fringe players would go to places like Eastleigh or Weymouth.
Now they are going to the current Italian champions.
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