The dip in form of Nigeria and Bordeaux of France winger Samuel Kalu has been traced to the way he was treated by the management of the team when his mother was abducted by kidnappers in Nigeria .
Kalu’s mother was later released after the payment of a ransom but the trauma of having his mother in the kidnappers den and lack of support from the American owners of Bordeaux left him broken.
According to top French scout Laurent Calippe, the Nigerian hasn’t been the same since that incident saying he should have been loaned out to regain his confidence and not transfer listed like the club did.
A loan move according to Calippe would have helped Kalu to get over the incident of his mother in the kidnappers then and he would have returned a better player for the team.
“He’s a player who had great potential. I know he’s lost a bit since his mother’s kidnapping in Africa. It didn’t do him good at all. I think that there was a break at that point.
“He may not have had enough backing from the Americans who didn’t want him at that time. So they put him on the transfer list and he was tossed right to left. But he is a player who, for me, has potential and has not yet been exploited to his value”,he told WebGirondins during an interview.
“ Frankly, I think this whole thing with his mother’s kidnapping hit him really, really hard in the back of the head. He had a hard time coming back. I think the solution in those cases would have been to loan him to someone. ‘he takes a breath of fresh air somewhere else and maybe becomes better to come back. “
