Wilfried Bony was once the Premier League's top scorer in the calendar year of 2014 and yet eight years on, the Ivorian is playing for the development side of League Two outfit Newport County.
After an impressive spell for Vitesse in the Eredivisie, Bony moved to Swansea for a fee of £12 million in 2013 and hit 35 goals in 70 appearances for the South Wales outfit.
In January 2015, Manchester City splashed out £25 million on the striker but he did not produce the goods and scored just 10 times in 48 games across one-and-a-half seasons.
Pep Guardiola did not see him as part of his plans and he spent the 2016/17 season on loan at Stoke City before sealing a return to Swansea.
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Bony has had spells in Saudi Arabia and Qatar with Al-Arabi and Al-Ittihad respectively but now finds himself back in South Wales.
The 33-year-old scored the winner for Newport's reserves in a 2-1 behind-closed-doors friendly victory over Swinton Town and confused the heck out of a whole lot of fans.
One wrote: "Wilfried Bony plays for Newport??
A second added: "What the f*** is Wilfried Bony doing in Newport County's development squad?"
A third commented: "Surely that’s not the same Wilfried [sic] Bony."
A fourth weighed in: "Wait wait wait. Let's take a break from the World Cup a second, Wilfried Bony is at Newport County???
A fifth said: "What is Wilfried Bony doing playing for Newport?"
However, there is a reason behind Bony turning out for the Exiles. Although not contracted, he has established a relationship with the club and trained with them on and off while in between moves.
He did in 2019 and thanked the club after securing a transfer to NEC Nijmegen, though that didn't work out as he only managed 15 minutes.
Bony did explain that manager Michael Flynn was onboard with signing him previously but also aware that he had aspirations to play higher.
“My friend Michael Flynn, said, ‘You can have a game here’ but it’s the fact it’s in League Two,” Bony told The Athletic.
“I’ve been to Qatar, I didn’t play for six months – all of that together, it’s not going to look good [on my CV].
“Not because I’d be playing in League Two, but you can see from the beginning, ‘He got injured, he went to Qatar, he played Africa Cup; we don’t see you too much. You keep dropping…’
“I said [to Flynn] it would be difficult for me to accept that offer. And when I explained it, he said I was right.”
Topics: Manchester City, Swansea City
Josh Lawless