Former Nigeria youth international, Kehinde Fatai, has joined Russian Premier League team, FC Ufa on a three-year-deal.
The Jos-born striker left Czech Republic Sparta Prague for Ufa and is expected to lead the club attack this season, africanFootball.com reports.
The former JUTH FC striker scored eight goals for Sparta Prague last season.
Nigeria striker Kehinde Fatai has promised to score many more goals for Sparta Prague when the Czech Republic league resumes after the winter break.
The former JUTH FC hitman, who was nicknamed “Match Bonus” by the Jos football fans due to his goal-scoring prowess, scored in his team 1-1 draw with Dinamo Moscow in Spain Wednesday, africanFootball.com reports.
“It’s my job to score goals and I’m always filled with joy when I do so. I am glad to score in the pre-season game and I am looking forward to get more goals when the league resumes,” Fatai told africanFootball.com.
Fatai has scored eight goals in the Czech league this season.
Kehinde Fatai’s Czech Republic club Sparta Prague has qualified for the next stage of the UEFA Europa League following a 1-0 win over Asteras Tripolis on Thursday.
Asteras Tripolis of Greece lies third on four points, africanFootball.com reports.
Sparta Prague is second in Group K with nine points behind Schalke 04 on 11 points with a round of games to spare.
Fatai, who has netted twice in Europa League this season, was in action for 80 minutes before he was replaced by Tiemoko Kanote.
Sparta only goal was scored in the 33rd minute through Jakub Brabec.
Czech Republic power house Sparta Prague coughed up €500,000 to sign former Nigeria youth international Kehinde Fatai from Astra Giurgiu of Romania, AfricanFootball.com can specially report.
The Jos-born star was a big hit for Farul Constanta and Astra Giurgiu in Romania.
The Romanian club turned down a bigger offer for the striker from French club OGC Nice last summer, but with a year left on his contract, they decided to cash in on the player, who has represented Nigeria at U-20 and U-23 levels.
Before Fatai signed a deal with Sparta Prague, a Turkish club were seriously interested in signing him and even opened line of communication with one of his representatives.
FIFA has told the Romania Football Federation that ex-Nigeria U20 striker, Kehinde Fatai, cannot feature for the Balkan nation.
Fatai himself told africanFootball.com: “FIFA has told Romania FA that I am not eligible to play for the Romania national team as the country’s soccer officials had hoped. FIFA said if I had secured Romanian citizenship before I played for Nigeria junior teams, that would have been possible.”
The striker has been a big hit since he moved to Romania from JUTH FC of Jos in the 2006/2007 season, when he joined Farul Constanta.
On Saturday, Fatai scored his seventh goal of the season as he helped his club to a 2-1 win over CSMS Iasi.
Astra Giurgiu lies in third position on Romanian league table with nine points from four matches.
He scored the winner for his team in the 39th minute, when he took the ball from centre circle, raced past his markers, gave Brazilian Williams a pass and he scored from the return pass.
He told africanFootball.com his goals will propel Astra Giurgiu to greater heights this season.
It was contrasting fortunes for Nigeria’s Kehinde Fatai and Daniel Chima Chukwu in the UEFA Europa League last night.
Former Nigeria youth international Kehinde Fatai was on parade for his Romanian club Astra Giurgiu, who progressed to the next stage of the second-tier club competition after they beat Liberec 3-1 away in the second leg.
Astra Giurgiu thus go through on a 6-2 aggregate.
The Jos-born striker scored a hat-trick in the first leg last week. He saw 78 minutes of action in the second leg when he was replaced by Sadat Bukari.
In Norway, Daniel Chima Chukwu could not rescue Molde from crashing out of the competition yesterday night as they lost 2-1 at home to Ukrainian side Zorya.
Chima was on from start to finish, but could not find the goals needed to scale through as they were sent packing 3-2 on aggregate.
The Nigerian forward scored the lone goal that earned them a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Ukraine last week.