FC Nantes of France winger, Moses Simon has expressed a strong view that his team would have picked a ticket into one of Europe’s two club competitions had the French Ligue 1 season not been cut short by effects of the coronavirus pandemic, megasportsarena.com reports.
Although he admitted that safety concerns over further infestation of COVID-19 accounted for the unceremonious end to action this season in the French top-flight the former SK Trencin of Slovakia and KAA Gent of Belgium crafty lad insists it was a setback to his ambitions with the club he played for on loan from Lavente of Spain.
His performances with Nantes eventually earned him a full contract last week, as the club deemed it fit to apply the buy-option that had been included in the deal from Levante but, despite getting a new contract after emerging Nantes’ top scorer and player of the season, Moses confessed it would have been better had the campaign ended normally.
However, despite the termination of action putting an end to his collective aspirations with the squad, Simon concluded that the decision to call off the campaign was reasonable and described it as the best option to take under the prevailing health circumstances across the whole world.
Indeed, it was an anti-climax to a marvelous debut season to remember from the 24-year-old Kaduna-born lad at La Beaujoire-Louis Fonteneau, in which he played 30 games, emerged as the club’s highest goals scorer, with nine goals across all competitions, including five in Ligue 1, and provided eight assists that were also the most in his team.
Rather than slam Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) for arriving at the verdict, which was instigated by a pronouncement by the country’s Prime Minister, Edouard Phillipe that all sports activity in the country had to be put on hold till September, Simon says he cannot fault the egg heads for deciding to put an abrupt end to the campaign.
The dark-skinned winger, who played for Nigeria at New Zealand 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup and won bronze with the Super Eagles at last year’s Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt, was named the club’s player of the season after garnering 40% of votes in a poll conducted among Nantes’ fans, is now left with contrasting view over the development.
Although he concluded that LFP took the best decision, at a point Nantes were 13th on the log, Simon admitted he feels disappointed that he was not able to achieve his target of taking the club into Europe, while stressing that they would have ended on a high if play had continued.
Simon told Goal: “For sure we would have earned a place in Europe if the league was completed because we have all it takes, (but) I think it is the best decision from them because when there is life there is hope and it is then you can think about playing football.
“They know they cannot handle the pandemic, that’s why they stopped the league so it would be unfair to criticize them or to say that they made a mistake. What if they did not stop the league and things got worse? That would all be another serious issue.”
