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In the usual transfer-German, SC Paderborn announced the signing of Kennedy Okpala yesterday. Shortly afterwards, the selling club Waldhof Mannheim also made a statement. However, they claimed that Okpala is still their player. What’s going on?
On Friday at 1 p.m., SCP reported the deal with Okpala. The 21-year-old has signed a long-term contract and will immediately travel with the team to the training camp in Belek (Turkey).
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This news, however, caused “astonishment” at his previous employer, Waldhof Mannheim, according to their own statement. Okpala had “terminated his ongoing contract at the end of the year” and did not show up for training yesterday, Friday, according to a brief statement on the club’s website, which ends with a clear message: “Kennedy Okpala is still a player of SV Waldhof.”
Speaking to ‘Bild’, Horst Kletke, sports lawyer and Okpala’s advisor, countered today: “We terminated the contract because Waldhof Mannheim did not fulfill its own contractual obligations.” This matches the view of ‘kicker’ that the termination was without notice.
The officials in Mannheim, however, see things differently. Waldhof’s sporting director Gerhard Zuber told ‘Bild’ that now “other bodies will have to decide” whether this is legal. De jure, much is still unclear at the moment; de facto, Okpala is currently sweating in SCP workwear at the training camp in Turkey.
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.
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