Luyindula Snubbed Juventus After Henry Warning
Thursday 2nd August 2001
France Under-21 forward Pegguy Luyindula looks set to stay at Strasbourg for one more season after admitting that Thierry Henry persuaded him to reject a move to Juventus while his second division club had turned down offers from Rennes and Lyon.
The highly-rated 22-year-old, who was reported to be a transfer target for Bolton Wanderers this week, gave his first indication that he would be happy to stay at Meinau Stadium despite the interest from bigger clubs.
Luyindula started the first game of the season a 1-1 draw against Le Havre on the substitute's bench as new coach Ivan Hasek decided to partner new signing Mixu Paatelainen with Daniel Ljuboja.
And though the youngster looked set to leave after helping his side win the French Cup final, no club has put in an offer that met new general manager Marc Keller's valuation for the star. Luyindula was keen to move to Rennes or Lyon, revealing: "It would have interested me to play at such clubs. But that's just the way the market's been."
He went on to admit that Serie A side Juventus, who have sold Filippo Inzaghi to AC Milan and have failed in efforts to buy Marcelo Salas and Christian Vieri, had expressed an interest in his services.
But Luyindula was deterred from moving after a chat with Arsenal forward Henry, who spent an unsucessful year at the Stadio Delle Alpi. "What use would it have beem to go to Juventus? I would have found myself on the bench full stop.
"I called Thierry Henry, who has payed there, and he said it would be a shame to sign in Turin and not be a first-team regular."
Luyindula added: "Personally, I've stopped upsetting myself with all these questions. If I'm still here it's because nothing has happened. Frankly, I was getting sick of all this. At the moment, I'm better off at home where I can really think about all that's happened."
Hasek was adamant that his decision to leave Luyindula on the bench was not a sign he was prepared to let him leave. "It wasn't in any way a sanction against Pegguy. He's a great player and we need him to go back up."
Luyindula emerged as a fast and skilful striker at the junior international tournament in Toulon in June 1998 when he finished top scorer with six goals, and, as well as being Strasbourg's top scorer this season, he has bagged 12 in 16 outings for the Under-21s.
Roma offered �3.5 million for the forward back in 1998, but then coach Claude Le Roy turned them down in the belief that Luyindula would deliver on the promise he had shown.
The young striker struggled, however, to score in the French First Division but Le Roy did not hesitate to give a him a regular starting place when he took over as coach against Saint-Etienne on 27 November 1999.
Alone up front, Luyindula took his chance, exploding with five important goals in the next three months, including a hat-trick against Lyon in February 2000 at the Meinau.
Since then, Luyindula, the son of former Zaire international Maki Luyindula, has been a target of a number of clubs, and is worth almost ten times as much as the �800,000 they paid to bring him from Niort.
In April, Luyindula claimed he was offered a pay rise from �5,500 a month to �20,000 a month earlier in the season, only for the club to renege on their promise. "They treat me like a slave," he said.
