Sylvester Agyei tells why his brother left Anderlecht

YOUTH - TRANSFERS In an interview with La Dernière Heure, Enock's brother and manager Sylvester Agyei explains how he believes things went wrong between them and Anderlecht.  "Of all the proposals we had received, Anderlecht's was the lowest."


When Felice Mazzu arrived in June last year, it quickly became clear that he wanted to play 3-5-2 as he did at Union. In such a system, there is no immediate place for a type like Agyei, an explosive winger. That caused anxiety for Agyei, who realized he was facing an important season in which he wants to advance to the A-team. During the preparation, he sometimes had to take care of the entire right wing, which does not immediately reflect his strengths.

In June last year, Agyei received an initial offer from Anderlecht to extend his contract, which ran for another year. "But we decided to wait and see, seeing how things would go athletically," says brother Sylvester Agyei. "However, we had previously had a conversation with Kompany who asked if Enock wanted to stay. We had replied positively to that at the time."

Contract like Westerlo

As he had not yet signed, Agyei will not be in the picture with the A-team, but with the Futures he will get his chance. In September, Peter Verbeke comes up with another proposal, with the same salary as in June and the promise that if he joins, Enock will be promoted to the A-team. "Verbeke said it was very nice salary for an 18-year-old player and that players at Westerlo did not earn that much," he said.

But according to Sylvester, Westerlo had come knocking in the meantime and Enock could earn more there. "Of all the proposals we had received, Anderlecht's was the lowest," said Sylvester, who also says that Verbeke would forward him the proposal by e-mail, but never received it.

500,000 euros? Not true

The story that Agyei wanted to earn 500,000 euros a year, as told in the Radio Radzinski podcast, is not true, according to Sylvester. "Of course we wanted Enock to be paid well, but we were not greedy," he says. According to Sylvester, they never even made Anderlecht a counter-proposal because they never received an initial proposal on paper.

Several clubs have since continued to follow the dossier and in November Vincent Kompany also contacted Sylvester again. Initially, the Agyei family feared the move was too big, but Kompany expressed a lot of confidence. So Agyei signed with Burnley on 31 January. He was immediately loaned out to KV Mechelen. A result of the good contacts between Kompany and Tim Matthys, KV's sporting director.

Family wish: debut at Anderlecht

"We had heard nothing more from Anderlecht or Jesper Fredberg. So we left," Sylvester concludes. "In the ideal world, Enock would have made his debut at Anderlecht. That's what we wanted as a family. Hopefully the new board will draw lessons from this. Otherwise great talents will still leave Neerpede."

Anderlecht finally caught a transfer fee of 350,000 euros and is entitled to some bonuses and a percentage in case of a resale.