Report: Anatole Abang "won't be returning to MLS"

The argument between Naestved and Hobro over which club bungled Anatole Abang's proposed deadline-day transfer has been resolved, more or less.

Hobro's club chairman, Lars Kuhnel, told Nordjyske.dk that he had spoken with Naestved's managing director, Line Hoilund Pedersen:

We buried the hatchet. It was a very positive conversation.

And Kuhnel went on to say that Hobro would be working with Anatole Abang's agent to help the player find a new club.

In an earlier conversation with Nordjyske, Kuhnel had lamented the public spat between his club and Naestved: "It's not Danish," he said. He also clarified Hobro's side of the story: as the transfer window in Denmark closed, he club received a contract from MLS that stated Hobro would be liable for Abang's salary for the remainder of the season if a proposed loan to Naestved was unsuccessful. Unaware that Naestved and Abang had already agreed terms, Hobro didn't sign the contract from MLS. And Abang didn't get his move.

And then there was a remarkable and public spat between Hobro and Naestved over which club should carry the blame for bungling Abang's transfer.

All of this leaves Abang without a place to play. It seemed a little curious that Hobro - the team that has just cut Abang loose from a loan that was supposed to run to the summer - is offering to help the player find a new club. Surely he should just return to the New York Red Bulls?

Kristian Dyer reports for Metro (no relation) that Abang shouldn't be expected back in Harrison any time soon - perhaps, ever. Citing a source "close to the situation", Dyer advises he has been told Abang "won't be returning to MLS".

Dyer's source advises Abang is getting attention from several clubs in Europe. That is good news for Abang, but unless MLS has released him from his contract, he will find it hard to land a job in many places in Europe, since the transfer window has closed in a great many of the continent's leagues.

Still, it is already known that Naestved wanted to sign Abang, and he trialed with Silkeborg earlier this year. He has surely attracted attention since moving to Denmark. And there is a rumor that FC Cincinnati is interested in the Cameroonian forward. Dyer's source said Abang wouldn't be coming back to MLS; FC Cincinnati plays in USL.

The Metro (no relation) report is another data point in support of the notion that Anatole Abang's days at RBNY are over. He was surprisingly loaned out to Hobro in the middle of last season, on terms that were going to keep him in Denmark until the middle of the 2017 MLS campaign. That itself suggested the Red Bulls weren't factoring the 20-year-old into their plans for, basically, two years at least. And that suggested he was effectively being exiled to Denmark in the hope he'd make a name for himself and RBNY could make a sale.

When Hobro cancelled Abang's loan, we now know that the player sought immediately to sign with a new club in Denmark. And that deal appears not to have been blocked at all by MLS (and therefore RBNY) and was only prevented from going through by a miscommunication between Hobro and Naestved. This is not the behavior of a team interested in having a player back (or a player interested in returning).

Dyer's report adds to the long-held suspicion that when Abang and RBNY parted ways last summer, it was with the mutual expectation they wouldn't see each other again.