The sporting director of Sevilla Victor Orta has defended the decision made by the club to sign Nigerian striker Jerome Akor from Ligue 1 side Montpellier ahead of Brazilian forward Alerrandro of Brazilian side Red Bull Bragantino, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Both players were targeted by the club as potential reinforcement to their attack , but in the end the club settled for the Nigerian despite the fact that his last goal came in November last year.
Orta was forced to defend their choice to go for Akor who has just three goals to his name this season ahead of the Brazilian who finished last season in Brazil with 15 goals and four assists.
He started by defining the characteristics of Akor: “He is a player we have been following for a long time. In his time in Norway and beginnings in Montpellier, where he had excellent numbers”, he explained.
“Then due to the circumstances of the team he did not maintain that level, but when we saw that he was available in the market we did not hesitate to hire him because he can give us physical, speed, back-back play, aggressiveness … He is a fairly complete striker who has already gone through a powerful league like the French one, with a lot of mark and aggressiveness. Here you can add and contribute with all those virtues.
“We have reached an extraordinary option with Akor, we are satisfied.
“He is a good finisher. He even assists with his head, leaves many second plays for the arrival of the teammates. For the rival centers it is difficult to score because it is not only high. It is agile and has mobility. It is one of the reasons to occupy the area with a player with different characteristics from what we currently have.”
After that he explained the main reason why Akor was picked ahead of Alerrandro: “We make a technical, economic, adequacy and adaptability evaluation. We made the decision the sports direction with the president and the coach. We decided that it could be that Akor could add more to us from the beginning and that was the decision, putting everything on the table.”
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
