The future of Konoplyanka is uncertain

With the future of Konoplyanka up in the air, and no signs of the announcements that his father and representative promised for this week, in which the future of the Ukrainian international should be known, Sevilla is already moving to look for an alternative to the Dnipro player. And one summer later, the name of the Frenchman Valbuena reappears, who was already sought after last season but preferred to leave for Dinamo Moscow, which offered him a much higher salary.

Valbuena, who will turn 31 on September 28th, signed for three seasons with Dinamo Moscow, which UEFA has excluded from its competitions for the next campaign due to financial fair play violations. This has been decisive for the Frenchman to request his departure since he still hopes to play in the upcoming Euro 2016 in his country with the French national team. In fact, he was called up and played minutes in the friendlies that France played in early September against Belgium and Albania, starting in the first match and scoring a goal, and playing for half an hour in the second match. In that call-up, he coincided with Sevilla player Tremoulinas.

This season, Valbuena has played a total of 36 games, split between 25 matches in the Russian League and 11 in the Europa League. In those games, he scored four goals and provided a total of 15 assists. These are not insignificant numbers considering the 2,881 minutes he played. Sevilla wanted him last season and now the opportunity arises. The operation is not simple since if Dinamo demands a transfer fee, the player would have to further lower his salary, but the option is there and it cannot be considered more difficult than acquiring the services of a Konoplyanka who is being offered a fortune from Stoke City and has also been inquired about by Atlético Madrid in the last few hours. In fact, a kind of psychosis has been generated in the Ukrainian press to know the destination of one of the main stars of their football, to the point that it was confirmed yesterday from the former Soviet country that Konoplyanka had signed for Stoke, Galatasaray, and Sevilla, depending on the media consulted.