Tottenham are being linked with a shock move for Lomana LuaLua with reports claiming a deal for the striker is imminent.
The Congo international knows Spurs boss Harry Redknapp well from their time together at Portsmouth and it looks as though a reunion could be on the cards.
LuaLua is expected to become a free agent after negotiating his release from Qatar club Al-Arabi and Redknapp will be allowed to swoop outside of the transfer window.
The 28-year-old’s career has faltered since he left Pompey initially for Greek side Olympiakos but Redknapp wants to get him back on track and could offer him a two-and-half year deal.
When Lua Lua joined Portsmouth on a three-month loan deal with a view to a permanent deal at the end of the season LuaLua scored on his debut for Portsmouth in a 4–3 away defeat to Tottenham Hotspur in February 2003
Rumour mill says hes on his way
During this loan spell he scored in the 89th minute in a 1–1 draw for Portsmouth against parent club Newcastle.The result lifted Portsmouth out of the bottom three of the Premiership.He scored four goals in 15 appearances for Portsmouth as they finished in mid-table in their debut season in the Premiership.
Manager Harry Redknapp was sufficiently impressed with LuaLua’s performances that when his loan spell ended at the end of the 2003–04 season, he signed LuaLua permanently at a cost of £1.75 million.
LuaLua made 26 league and cup appearances, scoring six goals, including two against local rivals Southampton, in the 2004–05season. The season was marred by a groin injury at the beginning and a hamstring injury in May 2005.Disciplinary problems led to charges by the Football Association of abusive behaviour in December 2004 and improper conduct after he was sent off against Blackburn Rovers in January 2005, for which he received an extra one-match ban and a fine of £5,000 in addition to a three-match ban for the dismissal.
He made 26 appearances in the 2005–06 season, scoring seven goals, but missed several games in the autumn after contracting malaria on a visit to Africa to play for DR Congo. He also missed several games due to international duty at the 2004 African Cup of Nations and missed games in April 2006 after damaging his foot while doing his acrobatic goal celebration during a game against Arsenal.
His disciplinary problems continued when he was warned by the Football Association over his future conduct; this came after he admitted a charge of improper conduct in relation to comments made about referee Uriah Rennie after a 3–1 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur in December.
LuaLua signed a new three-year contract in July 2006; it was set to keep him at Portsmouth until 2009. An ankle injury suffered in a pre-season friendly led to LuaLua missing the beginning of the2006–07 season.
He struggled to break back into the first-team, making only eight starts out of 24 appearances, and scored only two goals in that season.] Manager Harry Redknapp warned him that he needed to “…start performing” and that he had to “…start producing next season”.
However, he joined Greek club Olympiakos in August 2007 and Redknapp admitted that, “Lua wants to move on… I’ve no doubt he’ll go away and be a great player for Olympiakos. He wants a change, he wants to play in a role behind the strikers and he wants to move abroad. He will get to play in the Champions League by moving to Greece. He has been a top Premier League player and he’ll be a top player for them.
Olympiakos
LuaLua joined Olympiakos for a fee of around £2.8 million (€4.1 million) in August 2007, signing a three-year contract. He made his 2007–08 Super League debut in a 0–0 draw with Panathinaikos on 2 September
His first goals for his new club came in the following Super League fixture when he scored twice in Olympiakos’ 6–2 victory against OFI Crete on 23 September. LuaLua opened the scoring with a 30-yard volley and contributed to a historic 4–0 victory in a cup-tie against arch-rivals Panathinaikos in January 2008.
An ankle injury kept him out of Olympiakos’ Champions League first leg tie with Chelsea in February. A more serious injury, a dislocated shoulder, suffered during a Super League game againstAsteras Tripolis in March,meant he missed the second leg Champions League match against Chelsea too.
He was out of action for most of the rest of the season, returning against Iraklis in late April to help Olympiakos win a fourth straight Greek championship. He fell out of favour shortly before the Greek Cup final in May and was placed on the transfer list.
He had scored six goals in 30 appearances for Olympiakos.
Al-Arabi
Following his injury hit spell at Olympiakos, LuaLua joined Qatar based club Al-Arabi on a one-year contract in July 2008 According to LuaLua’s official website, he rejected offers from clubs in Russia, Spain and Saudi Arabia deciding that the offer was too good to refuse.
He cited the departure of the manager and sporting director, who brought him to Olympiakos, as a reason for his departure from the Greek club. On 30 October, Al-Arabi won the Sheikh Jassem Cup, beating Al-Rayyan Club 3–0 in the final with LuaLua scoring one goal in the seventh minute
In the 21st week of the 2008–09 season, on 20 February 2009, LuaLua scored his first league goal for the club in a 4–2 defeat to Al-Khor. His only other goal for that season came in a 1–0 win over Al-Kharitiyath on 16 April.
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