Alex Song’s eight-month footballing wilderness is over after signing with African outfit Arta Solar 7.
The former Arsenal and Barcelona midfielder has been without a club since March when he and eight other players were dismissed by Swiss club Sion for refusing to take a pay-cut during the coronavirus pandemic.
However, he is back in the sport after signing a two-year deal with Arta Solar 7.
‘I have signed a two year contract with Arta. This is an opportunity to promote Djibouti football,’ he tweeted.
The 33-year-old, who updated his followers with an Instagram story on Wednesday, will wear the No 17 shirt at the club and his arrival saw fans flock to the streets to greet him.
As well as playing, local media report that the Cameroonian will oversee the team’s youth development – a decision made after he met with the club’s president.
Arta Solar 7 plays in Djibouti which is situated on the east coast of Africa. The country itself is currently ranked 185th in the world out of Fifa’s 210-strong list, while they are 51st in Africa – with only Somalia, Seychelles and Eritrea ranked lower in the continent.
Last season the club won the Djibouti Cup and finished fourth in the country’s top flight. As a result of their victory in the former, they have qualified for the Confederation Cup, the second-tier African club competition, where they will face Egyptian side Arab Contractors in the preliminary round.
Despite having been without a club since March before joining Arta Solar 7, Song still hit the headlines in May when he opened up on his obsession with money and revealed he ‘didn’t think twice’ about leaving Arsenal for Barcelona once he learnt how much he would be earning at the Camp Nou.
Song made the £15million switch from London to Catalonia in the summer of 2012, after six years at Arsenal.
The move to Spain saw the midfielder earn a pay rise from £55,000-a-week at Arsenal to £70,000 at Barcelona.
‘I met Barca’s sporting director, and he told me I would not get to play many games,’ Song said, in an Instagram live chat with professional basketball player and compatriot Pascal Siakam of the Toronto Raptors, as reported by Cameroonian website Lion Indomptable.
‘But I didn’t give a f***. I knew that now I would become a millionaire. When Barcelona offered me a contract, and I saw how much I would earn, I didn’t think twice.
‘I always say, a young man of 20 who drives a Ferrari is poor, because at 20 you haven’t done anything yet. But a man of 50 who drives in a Bentley, is a man to respect.’
Song, who signed for Arsenal in 2006 and made 205 appearances for the club, has also revealed how he was blown away by Thierry Henry’s car when he arrived at training.
‘When I arrived at Arsenal… I arrived at training then I saw the king (Thierry Henry) with a car but damn, the car was a jewel and therefore I told myself that I needed the same car no matter what the cost,’ Song admitted.
‘I swear that after two months I had my car returned, all my money was going to fuel and I told them to give me a Toyota.
‘When I got to training, Titi asked me “but son where is the car”, I told him “this car it’s not at my level!”‘
After moving to Barcelona, where Song won one La Liga title and one Supercopa de Espana, he moved to West Ham in two separate loan spells, and the defensive midfielder has also appeared for Rubin Kazan.
