Samir Nurkovic’s Moroccan dream over as Raja end pursuit

Samir Nurkovic’s dream of playing in Morocco ended after Raja Casablanca decided they would not be signing the former Kaizer Chiefs striker.

Kokota Piano, as Nurkovic is known in the football fraternity, has been training with the Casablanca giants in Qatar. 

He was assessed by former Orlando Pirates head coach Jozef Zinnbauer and his South African assistants Fadlu Davids and Darien Wilken.

RAJA END SAMIR NURKOVIC PURSUIT 

An SN24 source told this publication that the player is no longer training with the club. He has been told to stop as he won’t be signed. According to the source, the Serbian is not in good physical condition. 

Before he joined Raja Athletic pre-season camp, the Serbian forward trained with Cape Town City for several weeks to secure a deal, but his agent confirmed that it fell off. 

He failed to secure a contract at the Mother City outfit. His agent, Dajan Simac, revealed that the two parties could not reach an agreement. 

He is a free agent after being released by Royal AM in October last year. The two parties are embroiled in a court battle. 

The world’s football governing body handed the Kwazulu Natal-based side a 12-month transfer ban. This was after they failed to pay Nurkovic around R12 million. 

Royal AM disagreed with FIFA’s decision and took the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. 

CAS threw out Royal AM’s application to overturn the transfer ban from FIFA. 

OTHER SOCCER NEWS: Orlando Pirates told to wait

Royal AM boss Shawn Mkhize claimed that Nurkovic arrived at the club carrying an injury, and he did not report for duty when their 2022/23 pre-season started and only came in September. 

PLAYED HIS BEST FOOTBALL

Nurkovic joined Kaizer Chiefs in July 2019 from KFC Komarno, for whom he made 41 league appearances, scoring 35 goals. He played his best football in the DStv Premiership during 2019/20. During that season, he made 26 appearances in the league for the Naturena-based outfit. He parted ways with Chiefs in June 2022. Amakhosi chose not to exercise the option on his contract, which meant he had to leave the Soweto giants. 

After the 2022/23 campaign without a club, it remains to be seen where the former Chiefs marksman will take his club search.