Four-time champion striker Nsame moves from YB to Venice. The Bernese still have two similar types of players in the squad. Nevertheless, the Young Boys’ winter transfers harbor as much self-confidence as risk.
Jean-Pierre Nsame (left) didn’t play a second in the second half of 2021.
When YB coach David Wagner was talking about YB striker Jean-Pierre Nsame a week ago, he simply called him “JP”. He pronounced the initials in English as if the Franco-Cameroonian footballer were a world-famous rapper. And now this little Bernese star is moving on: Nsame, the top scorer in the last two Super League seasons, is moving to Italy for Venezia FC, initially on loan until the end of the season.
There is something amazing about this transfer. On the one hand, because Nsame said in the office of YB sports director Christoph Spycher that he wanted to make his comeback for YB, it was recently in the “Berner Zeitung”. On the other hand, because Nsame is just about to make a comeback. As far as “explosiveness and reactivity” are concerned, Nsame “is not yet where he was before his injury,” said coach Wagner about “JP”. It was “totally dubious” to predict how long the way back would take, “two weeks, four weeks, six weeks”.
Nsame tore his Achilles tendon last spring, in the second half of 2021 he didn’t play a single minute, so never under Wagner. Wagner, who joined YB half a year ago, was enthusiastic about him in such a way that obviously the Italian interested parties must have been freed from any remaining doubts.
The goal that changed a lot: Jean-Pierre Nsame (far right) secured YB their first championship title in 32 years with a 2-1 win over Lucerne at the end of April 2018.
Siebatcheu, Kanga, Monteiro
Perhaps least surprisingly, YB lets Nsame go. The club and the players owe each other a lot. YB hired him from Challenge League (Servette) in 2017 despite reservations; Nsame turned out to be a loyal, opinionated figure. Although initially behind Guillaume Hoarau, he scored the winning goal in late April 2018 that secured YB their first league title in 32 years. He later surpassed Hoarau and was much more involved in the other three championship titles. In 124 league games he scored 79 goals.
32 goals in 6 minutes: Jean-Pierre Nsame in the 2019/20 season.
YB also lets this accurate striker go because there are two similar types of players in the roster: the physically strong players Jordan Siebatcheu and Wilfried Kanga. Insiders are also counting on the progress made by 22-year-old Joël Monteiro. It seems as self-confident as it is risky that the Bernese are trying to catch up on the 8-point deficit to the leaders FC Zurich without several pillars of the past years; Michel Aebischer (Bologna) and Silvan Hefti (Genoa) also left the club in winter. YB also announced the loan of central defender Nicolas Bürgy to Denmark (Viborg) on Monday. The signs couldn’t be clearer: the squad shouldn’t be too big for the championship race.
One more exciting facet
Other clubs would be asked if they were giving up their ambitions for the championship. With the Young Boys, this thought seems a little less obvious because they have made the right decisions in many of the past few years. But the question of whether the 2022 transfer strategy will work brings another exciting facet to the championship race. All the more so when there was another last-minute departure on Monday evening: Christopher Martins goes to Spartak Moscow. This transfer is also initially on loan, but in the summer there is an obligation to buy. The Russian club is said to be ready to pay close to CHF 10m for the Luxembourger.
It was an offer almost impossible to resist. However, the physical element that the sturdy Martins brought to central midfield will be something YB will look to replace. Which is an indication that the Bernese think they know what they are doing.