For over a decade now the No. 9 shirt at UD Levante has been under a strange and powerful curse.
Nano, Álex Alegría, Rafael Martins, Sadiku, or slightly more distant cases such as Babá or Nong. The list of strikers who have failed with Levante's jersey is extensive.
The shadow of Felipe Caicedo and Arouna Koné, even that of Obafemi Martins, is too long. Only attackers with a peculiar personality have triumphed in recent years and in any case they have required a period of adaptation. These are the cases of Barral or Boateng. The Ghanaian despaired last season in the first round to get the optimism after the arrival of Paco Lopez and mutate into a more than interesting footballer. To this burning nail, to the experience of his compatriot, Raphael Dwamena must hold on to not fail in his landing in the league.
Dwamena was for a few days - until Vukcevic arrived - the most expensive signing in the history of Levante. For the time being, he has not justified the club demanding that he enter the operation of Jefferson Lerma at Bournemouth or the investment of 6.5 million to prevent him from signing for CSKA. The Ghanaian has only played 52 minutes in official games, all of them coming from the bench: Betis, Celta and Valencia.
His only impressive performance that invited optimism was assisting Morales in the 3-0 at Real Betis. His contribution to Celta (31 minutes) and Valencia (21) was discreet. In fact, after that has disappeared from the calls of Paco López until last Saturday. He sat on the bench because Roger stayed in the stands with a fever.
Dwamena has not played a minute in an official match for a month now and he seems to be the fifth striker in the squad. Yes, the fifth one because he has ahead of Roger, Boateng, Mayoral...and Morales. With the change of system, Paco López is placing the captain Morales as one of the two attackers.
This has already displaced Mayoral and, for the time being, Roger. Roger Marti, Levante's top scorer with four goals, stayed on the bench against Alavés and in the stands due to illness in the Coliseum. The coaching staff has valued Boateng's size and fighting spirit for the time being, and even Torrent will have to grit his teeth if the drawing is maintained with two lanes.
Also in the selection of Ghana has opted for the '21' of Levante. The great victim, again Dwamena, who in this window of selections has remained in Valencia. Maybe this is a long-term advantage for him. He will have extra time from today - the team returns to training at 10.30 - to work under Paco López. Because, looking again at the example of his compatriot, he needs that little good in football: time to adapt, both to his new team and to a league much more demanding than the Swiss championship from which he comes.
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