2 months ago
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AFTER REPORTS came out a couple days ago that Jamaica and Ankaragucu winger Renaldo Cephas had gone missing, the former Arnett Gardens speedster has come out to deny the report with posts on his social media accounts.
The headline on TurkiyeToday.com read: ‘Turkish football team says Jamaican player Renaldo Cephas is lost.’
The report read that Ankaragucu were grappling with uncertainty as the 24-year-old Jamaican winger had gone missing.
It said the club reported that they had been unable to contact Cephas, who had not attended recent training sessions, and even quoted head coach Cihat Arslan, expressing his concern.
According to TurkiyeToday.com, Cihat said the team expected Cephas to appear for their last match against Şanlıurfaspor, but he never showed up.
“We don’t know where he is. We thought he would come to the stadium but he didn’t,” Arslan said.
However, yesterday, Cephas posted a picture of himself working out in the gym, with the comments below stating. “Fake news. Lost where. In the gym.” With a laughing emoji at the end.
Arnett Gardens general manager Peter Thelwell, also made contact with the player on hearing the report, and assured that Cephas was in good stead.
“It was a false report. It was not put out by the club, but because he was on the starting team on the match card and he never showed. But he was not training or anything leading up to the game, so he didn’t show,” Thelwell explained.
However, it is understood that three clubs have made huge offers for Cephas since Ankaragucu were relegated from the Super League to the First League (second tier).
Cephas is also one of the most popular players, not only among fans of the team but in the city of Ankara, and the club is reluctant to let their prize asset leave.
Nevertheless, Thelwell insists the player intends to honour his contract with the club, but noted that false reports like the one against the player can be damaging in many ways, especially to the respect and love he gets from the club’s supporters.
“It is not really a standoff. But he is in the process of transferring to another club. He was in training today (yesterday) because he is still under contract and he is not violating anything (in his contract).
“But he did not expect to be named in the team because he wasn’t training. He doesn’t want to say much on it but a lot of people have been calling him since yesterday from inside the city and internationally, including Jamaica.
“This sort of news could damage his reputation, his personal brand and public image. The fans might start to think negative of him because they are being misled and might feel he is betraying them.
“So, whether the report is misleading or not, in a city like that it could mean anything. It could mean he was kidnapped or anything and people all over were worrying about him and his personal safety.
“But he posted today (yesterday) to show that he was actually in the gym training and he planned to post another in actual training with the team, so people can see, and hopefully this will kind of make everyone feel reassured. So all is well with him and nothing is wrong.”
English (US) ·