:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/27377813/174411121.0.jpg)
Bertrand Traore has been on everyone's radar for years despite never having played a competitive match. We first heard of the prospect in 2010, when he was a very young man trailing with Chelsea, and he then spent the next three years kind-of-affiliated with the club before signing a professional deal last autumn. Earlier this month, he was sent out on loan to Vitesse -- and he still hasn't arrived there.
Apparently that's just how it goes with Bertrand Traore. He had trouble getting a work permit to play in the Netherlands because, and this is unclear to me because he's not Malian, he had to go to unsettled Mali to get the paperwork squared away. And that means he's been on loan for more than twenty days without actually managing to get to his new club.
But good news, Vitesse fans!
Peter Bosz: "Bertrand Traore komt als het goed is morgen aan in Arnhem" #Vitesse #vitnec
— Vitesse (@MijnVitesse) January 24, 2014
And the translation:
Bosz says that Traore will arrive tomorrow, if everything is fine
— Mark Will Stinson (@TheWSNetwork) January 24, 2014
With any luck, Traore doesn't get waylaid during his journey to Arnhem and he manages to settle down and get some games under his belt. This weekend's match against NEC is probably going to be too early for him to seriously feature, but he has the talent to get a lot of time in the Eredivisie and I'm looking forward to watching him, assuming he doesn't get caught in a time machine explosion or a wormhole or cursed by Poseidon or any of the things that I now associate with his footballing odyssey.
