At 30 years old and on top of his game, the Canadian international could strike gold with his next contract
Olivier Occean is coming out of his best season in career after greatly contributing to Greuther Fürth’s promotion to the Bundesliga and there’s no doubt he’s in very good position to sign what could become his biggest contract ever.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
Scoring 17 league goals (co-leading the German D2), plus two German Cup goals and three with Canada on the path to Brazil 2014, the Quebec product and his agent know they have the necessary arguments to raise the stakes.
Under contract with Fürth until 2014, Occean is currently in talks to reassess his deal, an automatic process with the promotion to the German top flight.
“I’m still negociating with Fürth so we’ll see what will happen in the coming weeks”, Occean told SoccerPlus via messaging.
“(Olivier) is an important part of our team. He has not fully touched all his potential and I have no intention to let him go”, emphatically responded club president Helmut Hack in an interview to a Nuremberg daily on Tuesday.
Fürth’s fortune was to pick up Occean from D3 side Kickers Offenbach for about € 200,000 last summer.
The pressure will be mounting on the small Bavarian club now playing with the big boys, since the Canadian international is attracting interest from clubs based in Dubaï and in China where money does not appear to run dry in football circles. That’s not counting established Bundesliga rivals, including Werder Bremen.
It is not surprising then that Occean will be in a good state of mind coming in to Toronto on Sunday to face the United States, his short-to-mid-term future is looking bright.
Do not miss our special edition of SoccerPlus recorded in Toronto following the Canada-USA Centenary gala match at BMO Field with comments from both coaches and players of both teams as they head to the CONCACAF semi-final round of the FIFA World Cup Qualifying Tournament. Available Monday morning on Canadian Soccer News, iTunes and Stitcher Radio.