An overview of the winter transfer window

BGL Ligue

F91 Dudelange made a move on deadline day to secure much-needed cover in defence. 20-year old Mali youth international Ismaël Sidibé joins the club on loan from F91’s Champions League opponents Malmö FF. The youngster doesn’t have a plethora of experience under his belt just yet but is sure looking like a promising prospect at BGL Ligue level. Sidibé is expected to play an important role for the club after Jules Diouf’s injury and Joscelino’s winter departure to Rumelange.

Swift Hesper found themselves in an increasingly intense title challenge come January, and they made sure to bring in some quality to bolster their options. Lado Akhalaia was loaned in from Torino, a Moldovan centre-forward from Inter Milan’s academy. Born in 2002, he has already been called up to the Moldovan senior national team, although he hasn’t made his debut yet. He will have to cover for the departing Mamadou Guirassy, who joins Angoulême in France after only 6 months in Luxembourg.

Mohamed Morabet is the other exciting arrival at Swift. The German-Moroccan dual-nationality playmaker can be used all over midfield, although he is said to prefer a more attacking role himself. He’s got 21 appearances in the 3.Liga, and has played at VfR Aalen and 1. FC Kaiserslautern at senior level. He could fill in for Smail Morabit and Maxime Electeur, who are both saying goodbye after mixed spells at Hesper. Morabit, a true veteran former Heidenheim and Bochum player returns to his hometown Forbach in France, meanwhile Electeur found his opportunities few and far between, so he is back in his homeland Belgium again.

FC Differdange suffered one of the major losses of the transfer window, having to let striker Bertino Cabral Barbosa go. Cabral secured a professional contract in the United Arab Emirates with Fujairah SC in the second division. Having scored 81 goals and assisted a further 21 in 175 BGL Ligue games, his absence is guaranteed to be felt not only at FCD but across the league as Luxembourg lose one of their top marksmen.

Fola Esch continued the wipe-out of their team as they try to juggle between balancing the books and salvaging the club from the humiliation of being involved in a relegation dogfight, or worse yet, fail in their attempt at staying up. No new arrivals and six leaving players (besides the retiring Stefano Bensi, Valdin Muharemović and Benjamin Runser). Three of them were passed on as free transfers – including national team midfielder Diogo Pimentel, who asked for a move to UNA Strassen – while another three were loaned out to lower-division clubs for more game time.

Progrès Niedercorn’s board had one of the hardest tasks this winter: replacing three players heading to the professional world. Although being able to sell Florian Bohnert and Sofiane Ikene, two Luxembourgers, to the French and German second tiers respectively speaks volumes about player development at the club, it also provides them with a tricky challenge of maintaining the depth and quality in the squad. This was also made harder by Asteras Tripolis’ last-minute decision to recall their centre-back Tobi Alagbe from loan. Niedercorn had to act quickly and they managed to get the experienced Karamoko Dembélé from French National club Paris 13 Atletico. As for Bohnert’s cover, it will be former Luxembourg international Gérard Mersch, who arrives from Racing FCUL in the capital.

It will also be interesting to see how Eric Preljević can start off at Union Titus Pétange. Union have been one of the surprise packages so far this season, and so signing an 18-year old talent from Viktoria Köln on a permanent basis sounds encouraging for the fans.

Abroad

As for the national team players who switched clubs in January, Danel Sinani is arguably the highest-profile example. His game time was already limited under previous manager Dean Smith, but since David Wagner’s appointment, it has become clear he would not get enough chances to prove himself. The winger eventually ended up joining Wigan Athletic on Deadline Day, in a loan move that will allow him to gain even more valuable experience in the Championship as he will have to help his new club in the race for survival.

Tim Hall also managed to find a club during the winter. Since his contract expired at the end of last season with Achnas in Cyprus, he had been training back at home in Niedercorn. Progrès didn’t offer him a contract though, and he was invited for a trial by Hungarian Division I club Újpest FC over January. He seemingly impressed and so he earned himself another professional contract! He has already made his home debut since, and put in a solid performance overall.

One of the transfers that could have slipped a bit under the radar was Vahid Selimović’s move to Gorica. The 10-time Luxembourg international centre-back left his previous team OFI Crete after his contract expired in June, but he isn’t a free agent anymore, either. After what is understood to have been a long and dragged out process, the former Metz defender finally signed for Gorica, who find themselves in a relegation scrap in the Slovenian first tier.

One of the perfect examples of “falling upwards” was the case of Seid Korac. He’s often been touted as a big talent in the country and was given his national team debut at the age of 19 in 2020 but his path hasn’t been a clear success since. Coming from a solid loan campaign at Cypriot side Akritas Chlorakas, he was supposed to return to Esbjerg, who are in a deeply worrying financial situation and currently drifting in the Danish third division. Luckily, he didn’t have to play a single game in Denmark – his saviours were Degerfors IF from the Swedish Allsvenskan, signing him for an undisclosed fee. Korac is thus joining Vincent Thill and Omar Natami as the third Luxembourger in the Scandinavian country.