Manyama completes move to Turkish side Konyaspor‚ signing three-year deal

Lebogang Manyama has completed his move to Turkish side Konyaspor‚ signing a three-year contract on Thursday.

The move was announced last week by Manyama’s former club Cape Town City‚ but was subject to the 26-year-old completing a medical when he was finished with national team duty in the World Cup qualifiers.

Konyaspor have now unveiled reigning Premier Soccer League Player of the season Manyama and revealed they had been chasing him for some time.

“The past year his performances have drawn a lot of attention and we have followed him for a long time‚” said Konyaspor spokesman Ahmet Baydar.

The Turkish side made their move when it became clear that Burkina Faso forward Abdou Traoré would be spending some time on the sidelines through injury.

“Traoré’s injury is taking longer than expected to heel and we are fighting on three fronts this season [Turkish league‚ cup and UEFA Europa League]‚ we decided to sign Manyama.”

Konyaspor have been drawn in the same Europa League group as French Ligue 1 side Marseille‚ Bongani Zungu’s former Portuguese club Vitoria Guimaraes and Austrian outfit Red Bull Salzburg.

The club has a number of players from the African continent on their books already.

Aside from Traoré‚ they also have Gabonese forward Malick Evouna‚ Ivorian Moryké Fofana‚ Wilfred Moke from DR Congo‚ Moroccan Mehdi Bourabia‚ and the Nigerian pair of Imoh Ezekiel and Patrick Eze.

Manyama sealed a switch after making it clear he wanted to leave Cape Town City in the transfer window‚ which led to his axing from the starting XI by coach Benni McCarthy.

City decided they would rather sell than keep an unhappy player and offered him to Sundowns as well‚ but The Brazilians’ valuation was well below what Konyaspor had put on the table.

Konyaspor’s next fixture is on Saturday against Alanyaspor in the Turkish league.

 - TimesLIVE