Nigerian striker Shola Haruna Shodiya joined Birkirkara after signing a two year deal with the Stripes following a whole saga surrounding the player.
Shola Shodiya arrived in Malta a few weeks ago for a trial with Qormi FC. During this trial, he left a very good impression with Stephen Azzopardi’s side where he finished as top scorer in the Hibernians FC Sigma Tournament.
A few days later, the player attended training sessions with Floriana and eventually Birkirkara.
On Saturday, Floriana FC issued a statement saying that the club terminated talks with his agent after coming to know that the player’s visa had expired four weeks ago and the club could not guarantee the renewal of this visa.
“In the light of the bad experience of last year, where the club was forced by Police to send goalkeeper Lotfi Saidi back home with immediate effect due to similar circumstances, therefore being unable to use him for the final matches and another goalkeeper had to be used.”
“The club feels that it could not take the risk as this case was identical to that of Lotfi Saidi and since the club cannot guarantee the renewal of the visa, Floriana FC have terminated their interest in the player,” said the statement.
Meanwhile the Birkirkara FC official website announced the signing of the player and announced that he could possibly be in squad for the BOV Premier League game against Mosta next Saturday.