Cameroonian forward Leandre Willy Onana Essomba is on the verge of sealing a sensational move to Tanzanian giants Simba SC, Times Sport has established.
The versatile attacker arrived in Dar es Salaam on Sunday, June 11, as a move to the fold of the Lions beckons.
Onana has had a successful two-year stint with Rwandan Premier League side Rayon Sports finishing the 2022/23 season as the league top scorer and has since attracted the attention of numerous teams with Simba now leading the race to sign him.
The Tanzanian club management is working on a major rebuild after playing second fiddle to Yanga in the just-concluded season and they have penciled Onana as one of their prime targets.
The Lions have parted ways with Ghanaian attacker Augustine Okrah just one-year after signing him from Bechem United due to his persistent injury problems and they have now switched attention to the Cameroonian star.
Barring any hitch, Onana is likely to sign for Simba in the coming days after undergoing medical and he is expected to take a huge signing on fee and, above all, a monthly salary in excess of $3000 that his predecessor Okrah was pocketing.
The Cameroonian landed in Kigali in September 2021 as part of close to 50 players who came to Rayon Sports for trials in that transfer window during the tenure of former coach Juma Masudi.
Though the Burundian gaffer was sacked for poor performance early in the 2021/22 campaign, he gave Rayon Sports an asset in the person of Leandre Onana who has been by far the club's best player in the past two years.
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Prior to moving to Rayon Sports on trials in 2021, the player had made a considerable name in his home country with Ending Sport FC, a club known in Cameroon for grooming quality young talents.
In his first season with Rayon, the 22 year-old forward scored ten league goals but his stellar performance in the 2022/23 season saw his goal tally improve significantly, banging in 16 league goals and eight Peace Cup goals . His goals were crucial to the Blues' first Peace Cup triumph in seven years besides finishing third in the league 61 points, two behind champions APR FC.
Rayon Sports are now preparing for life without Onana and find a good replacement who can make an impact during their 2023/24 CAF Confederation Cup campaign and also wrestle the title from APR in the 2023/24 season.
Onana really paid his dues as he had a great season with the top scorer gong as well as Rayon's player of the year award.
He is also expected to win the overall 2022/23 Rwanda Premier League best player award.
The youngster has written his name in the letters of gold at Rayon and the time has come for him to bow out as the applause is still high.
