It’s a bit different going out to play football a couple of times a year Dev to actually living there every day.
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You will no doubt be aware Bayo that any person awarded refugee status is effectively on probation for five years and that status can be revoked if the government believes that it is now safe for the individual to return to their home country. It is therefore strongly inadvisable for a refugee to travel to his home country during that period for any reason let alone a high profile one.
Then factor in just how easy it would be for say the Daily Express to spin this story (and the photos on his signing for WWFC) into a “look at this guy scamming a broken asylum system” front page as part of its anti-asylum seeker prejudice causing significant damage to our club and RK reputation and potentially limiting his future career opportunities and transfer value.
It feels unlikely that the club or his advisers would take the risk if his immigration status was as I had understood it to be. Which as I said above is something of a shame.
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Kone played in the 2019 Homeless World Cup for the Ivory Coast. He said in an interview at the time he was homeless because his family couldn’t accept his sexuality.
He then stayed in the UK and it took 4 years for his visa to be processed because of Covid. He played for Newham Athletic because Step 9 football was the highest level he was legally allowed to play at.
Wycombe sorted out his visa status and he became a pro. He has a girlfriend and is a father.
Those are all the facts I could find after minutes of dicking about on the internet. The stuff about being a refugee fleeing persecution might be true, but it’s pure speculation. Getting an international call-up seems to suggest that all is well with Kone and his homeland.
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You’re sad because he might not be a refugee?
I’m sad because I bought into to the back story of our club employing a refugee in the face of the appalling vendetta against people needing refuge being waged as a way of gaining political power.
It appears I misunderstood the story. That makes me a little sad.
I have no reason not to wish Richard Kone every success in his future life.
I suspect you fully understood all of that Eric.
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Honestly, I have no idea. Seems a really weird reaction to me.
One thing I do know is that whatever Richard has been through in his life, and I suspect it’s a lot more than most of us have had to deal with, he deserves first and foremost privacy to get on with his life without any of us a) knowing and b) speculating about the minutiae and details of it on an internet message board.
It’s literally none of our business
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Oh I think you have every idea, Eric. It’s what you do.
It’s very very weird and symptomatic of people not knowing all the facts building up their own picture, filling in some blanks and then being upset at others that it might have been bollocks. If he fell on hard times due to a combination of issues, wanted to come here, and jumped through a thousand hoops in our hostile environment being judge worthy of staying and has gone on to become a credit to himself and an example to others then minor details don’t matter. Also going back for the odd weekend as a minor celebrity at the federations invitation is not somehow a massive risk or something that restores him to being impoverished on the streets. If or likely when the Express or fail go looking for scandal or faux outrage, probably after he gets a big transfer, we should all be behind him.
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I believe he is a British citizen. I’m not sure he would be eligible for a work permit if he wasn’t.
The only confusion I have (or at least have a scintilla of interest in) arises from the fact that I read somewhere very recently that he played in the Homeless Games in 2019 when he was 17 which makes him a couple of years older than I thought he was.
Awful thread this, @eric_plant.
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Great shout that Micra
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He later admitted he was 16 during the games.
Nobody knows why he felt the need to add a year to his age as he was still eligible to play.
So just a year older then.
Who cares, to be honest.
Is anyone thinking of going?
That would be a great trip
With recent luck they’d announce he has moved to Luton on a free while I was on the plane over.
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kone didn’t make the squad for tonight’s game.
Yeah I saw that. Seems odd to take a small squad and not play him. Hope he’s not injured.
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eric bristow ended up with dartitis, a medical condition where he couldn’t throw darts.
kone probably has doddsitis, where he can’t score in front of an open goal from 3cm away…
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mrs micra is extremely impressed with your economy with the use of capital letters, @kim_il_swan.