Kamaldeen: Ghana winger off to a flying start in French Ligue 1 with sublime finish

BetOdds African All Stars Rennes Kamal Sulemana Ghana Lens Ligue 1 Rennes v Lens

The 19-year-old registered his name on the scoresheet in the matchday one fixture at Roazhon Park

Ghana attacker Kamaldeen Sulemana made a scoring start in Ligue 1 as Stade Rennes and Lens played out a 1-1 draw on Sunday.

Handed a start in the matchday one fixture, the 19-year-old took only 14 minutes to announce his presence, firing a beautiful curling effort into the net to put Rennes into the lead.

It was his competitive debut since snubbing Manchester United, Ajax, Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen to sign for Bruno Genesio’s outfit for a reported €20 million.

Kamaldeen gave Rennes an early lead, running down the left on the counter-break, switching the ball onto his favourite right-foot before releasing a curling effort just inside the box beyond goalkeeper Jean-Louis Leca to make it 1-0.

Five minutes later, however, Lens hit back through Cote d’Ivoire midfielder Seko Fofana after Nayef Aguerd was robbed of the ball.

Two minutes to the hour-mark, Kamadeen was whisked off the pitch, his place taken by Belgium winger of Ghanaian descent Jeremy Doku.

Both teams made attempts for the winner but there were no more goals to come as the referee blew his whistle to bring proceedings to an end.

Last month, Kamaldeen opened up on his move to Rennes, speaking on what went into his final decision.

“I chose Rennes because when I came for the visit, I spoke to coach [Bruno Genesio] and I spoke to [technical director] Florian [Maurice] and the project was very interesting and was good for me, and I felt here was the right place for me,” he said at his Rennes unveiling last month.

“They have a lot of young talent and they have produced a lot of good talent outside, the likes of [Ousmane] Dembele, a lot of players, [Eduardo] Camavinga, Jeremy Doku.

“And some Ghanaians also played here, like Asamoah Gyan who is like the top scorer in Ghana history. And I felt this is the place for me to be, also to improve myself and get to where I want to be in future.

“With Rennes, I get to play in Ligue 1 which is one of the best leagues in the whole world, so that’s enough of my reason. And I think I chose here based on my playing time and I think there’s a better chance of me playing more here than any other place, and I’ll play against great teams here as well.”

Kamaldeen is expected to make his second league appearance for Rennes in their visit to Brest next Sunday.

2021-08-08 18:00:04

Comments

Send Your Comment

Download Application