Lecce on Edge: Lameck Banda Has Disappeared

The Lameck Banda situation has erupted at Lecce. The star player did not show up for the team’s training camp, and no one has been able to contact him for over two weeks. The only certainty is that he is still in Zambia, where he got married in June.

“We haven’t heard from Banda in two weeks now, and neither have his agents,” sporting director Stefano Trinchera explained to Corriere del Mezzogiorno. “We’re all starting to worry that something might have happened that has nothing to do with soccer.”

“I’m starting to think that this situation isn’t part of some strategy to extract who knows what from Lecce, but rather that there’s some kind of personal issue. Unfortunately, we’ve started to lean toward that conclusion as well, because what’s happening is highly unusual,” the director concluded.

Initially, it was thought that Banda was pushing for his transfer given Al-Fateh’s interest. The Saudi club offered the star player a very lucrative contract, but Lecce opposed his transfer, and Banda apparently didn’t take it well.

That theory, however, was later ruled out: Al-Fateh has made offers for other players in Banda’s position, and even the Zambian’s agents have been unable to contact him.

“The player has gone off the grid. I don’t know the reason behind this behavior, and I hope there aren’t more serious issues involving him that we’re unaware of,” said President Saverio Sticchi Damiani.