Modibo Maiga has officially joined French Ligue 1 side FC Metz on an initial one season-long loan deal with the option to buy next summer thought to be around 3 million euros. The news was confirmed this morning by Metz official website followed shortly by West Ham.The out of favor Hammers striker could make his debut against Lyon this Sunday.
Maiga was loaned out to QPR at the half way point last season after Harry Redknapp came in late for him on transfer deadline day in January. QPR were believed to have paid half of his £30,000 per week wages as part of the six month deal. Despite scoring on his debut for the Hoops he failed to make any real impact after eight appearances and returned to the Hammers with his tail between his legs in the summer where he was unceremoniously relegated to the development squad to sit in humiliation on the bench as an unused sub. The 26-year-old forward previously played for Le Mans and Sochaux in France scoring a combined goal tally of 39 before joining West Ham but it didn’t quite happen for him in England.
West Ham signed Metz’s Senegal striker Diafra Sakho for an initial fee of £2.5m who made an immediate impact by scoring in last night’s Carling cup game. Maiga scored 6 goals for the Hammers from 37 appearances and has just under 2 years remaining on his contract. Metz are thought to paying just £6,000 per week of Maiga’s £30,000 per week wages but the thought is that something is better than nothing and if he gets his scoring boots back he could attract value in his remaining year of his contract. Maiga cost West Ham £4.7m when he joined in July 2012 plus another £5m in wages and employer costs.
Lets hope this brings a new start for him and let us not forget this goal he scored for us if nothing else!