Lennon delighted with Djemba-Djemba capture
DANNY Lennon last night hailed the capture of a “topdrawer player” after St Mirren announced the signing of former Manchester United midfielder Eric Djemba-Djemba.
The 32-year-old, who has been assigned squad number 99, passed a medical yesterday afternoon and has agreed a deal with the Paisley outfit until the end of the season in the hope it will smooth his path to a second World Cup finals appearance.
Capped 24 times by Cameroon, Djemba-Djemba was signed by Sir Alex Ferguson for £3.5million in 2003 but he was not one of the great manager’s more successful signings and moved 18 months later to Aston Villa for less than half the fee.
He only managed 11 firstteam outings at Villa Park and, after Martin O’Neill sent him out on loan to Burnley, he quit English football and embarked on a globetrotting journey from Qatar SC to Danish side Odense, Hapoel Tel Aviv in Israel and most recently to Partizan Belgrade, whom he joined last summer.
Apart from Odense, where he spent four years, none of those clubs helped Djemba-Djemba to find his feet and his stint in Serbia lasted just six months.
For all that, his appearance in the black-and-white stripes of St Mirren should be a welcome tonic for fans and he might be in a position to make his debut in Sunday’s William Hill Scottish Cup clash with Dundee United.
Manager Lennon told the club website: “I am delighted to announce the signing of Eric Djemba-Djemba till the end of the season.
“He is a top-drawer player who does a power of work in the defensive midfield area.
“At times I would have liked to play someone alongside Jim Goodwin in that role to protect the back four and give our creative midfielders more of a license to hit the opponents’ box. Eric has performed that role at the highest level for top European clubs.
“He wants regular football to ensure he goes to the World Cup with Cameroon this summer and we are happy to give him that platform.”
Djemba’s 24 international appearances have included appearances in the African Nations Cup-winning side of 2002, the FIFA Confederations Cup side that finished as runners-up to France in 2003 and the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, although, aged 21, he did not enjoy any game time in that tournament.
His Old Trafford career was indistinguished, and the premise on which he was signed – to provide cover for the injured Roy Keane – immediately got him into trouble in the Community Shield when he lunged into a tackle on Sol Campbell which Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger later described as “obscene”.
Djemba Djemba, who will be unveiled this morning, said in an interview last November: ‘It was my dream come true – Manchester United. My hero was Eric Cantona. When I go back in my country, they call me Cantona.”