"It was a lack of respect" - Chiekh Ndoye on Red Star exit
In an interview with RMC Mercato, the enigmatic former Red Star captain Chiekh Ndoye accuses the club of 'lacking respect' and revealed some of the dynamics in play with the club's American owners
The ‘Eternal’ Cheikh Ndoye.
The former Birmingham City and Angers man spent four years at Stade Bauer in a period which ended in the club finally sealing promotion back to Ligue 2. Out of contract last summer, Ndoye initially struggled to find a club - before signing for AS Cannes and becoming a part of their stunning Coupe de France campaign which ended in a semi-final defeat to Reims (1-2) earlier this month. Ndoye was on target against Reims, with another former Red Star captain Teddy Teuma getting on the score sheet only a few minutes later to level.
In a recent interview with RMC Mercato, Ndoye revealed that he wanted to stay at Red Star in any capacity, revealing that he was supposed to retire at the club and that president Patrice Haddad had gone back on his initial promise when signing the player back in 2020.
"I've kept a lot of memories from my time at Red Star,” said Ndoye on his time at the club from 2020-2024. “The promotion, the relationship with Habib Beye that I had. The players I worked with and some players that had an impact on me."
VIDEO: Ndoye scores his final goal for Red Star against Epinal
‘I wanted to finish my career at Red Star.’
Ndoye reached the age of 38 whilst he was still playing for Les Audoniens in modified striker role in the third division. He made 129 appearances for Red Star in total, and found the back of the net 31 times. In his final season for the club in 2023-2024 he would score six goals in 32 appearances.
”I'm disappointed too. I wanted to finish my career there. The project I worked with the president was to work on before and after my retirement,” revealed Ndoye on the initial plan devised with Haddad. But after the club was sold in 2022 to 777 Partners, Ndoye implies that it wasn’t the president who was fully in control of decision making at the club.
”After Haddad sold the club he said it wasn't him but higher-ups that decided not to extend. For me it was a lack of respect, a big shame. Even if he sold the club he would have still had a say."
Ndoye pointed out that it was the sporting director of the club, Reda Hammache (who has since departed for National-bound SM Caen) who didn’t want to extend the contract of the Senegal international. He even implies that he was the intermediary between Haddad and the American owners at the time.
”It was the sporting director at the time (Reda Hammache) who held the relationship between him and the Americans. He was the intermediary, he didn't want to extend, so they didn't.”
"He said that the Americans didn't want to keep any players that were over the age of 35. He said that I was old. When you don't want to do something you'll always find excuses."
It was during this period that control of the club passed from 777 Partners their insurers after they went bust. A-CAP have now been accused by US regulators of “Years-long history of self-dealing, conflicts of interest, and obfuscation,” being directly involved and activity facilitating 777 Partners’ fraudulent activities on a huge scale.
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Photo credit: Bazil Fleury – @icietailleurs55 on Instagram.
Great article this just for the simple fact that the players perspective never really seems to be acknowledged in football. As fans the majority of us obviously side with our club showing great business acumen discarding previously loved players as they are deemed past their best. Football is a cut throat business at its heart & maybe we should all be more accepting that players will decide to reciprocate when it suits them as well.