Sutekh Is he the first full international Reading have signed that never made an appearance for the first team?
Didier Angan - From Official site 20/07/02 : Ivory Coast international defender Didier Angan will join the Royals on trial for their pre-season training trip to Bavaria next week.
The 27 year-old centre-back has spent the last three years in France with Nice, but left the Cote D'Azur club after his contract expired at the end of June. He was linked with Everton earlier in the summer and will meet up with the Royals next week, having been on a trial in Germany this week.
As it turned out, he DIDN'T join up with the Royals as he'd been banned for a drugs offence, which his agent didn't mention, so Pards didn't want to know!
READING manager Alan Pardew has rejected 27-year-old Ivory Coast trialist Didier Angan for failing to come clean about his drugs past.
Angan was due to play in the first game of Reading’s pre-season trip to Germany against TSV Krumbach tomorrow.
But Pardew has sent the central defender on his way after learning that he served two months of a five-month suspension just over two years ago after testing positive for cannabis following a match for his former club side Nice.
Royals’ boss said: “We had him with us but we have since found out information which we were never made aware of by his agent.
“As a result we have decided we won’t be having a look at him. It’s not so much that he tested positive for cannabis, but the fact that the information was not forthcoming.
“He was painted as a perfect pro, but his agent was not totally honest.
“It’s nothing against the player himself, but I won’t be dealing with that particular agent again.
“If I am going to be using international agents then I want honesty.
“Had he been honest then the fact he used cannabis might not have even been an issue.”
From
http://www.btinternet.com/~rfc1871/watn ... rangan.htm :
Didier (Didié) Angan
Born: Anyama, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) on 27/8/1974
Didier Angan was initially granted a one-week trial with Reading during the
German tour of July 2002. Although he joined up with the squad (which is how
I have decided that he does qualify for inclusion in this website) and was
due to play in our first game of the tour, manager Alan Pardew then asked
him to leave after he became aware of details of a previous suspension for
drug abuse. Pardew's concern was not so much with the suspension, but the
fact that Angan's agent had tried to conceal it.
He normally plays at centre-back but has also appeared at right back. He
initially moved from his home to France to go on the books of Paris St
Germain in 1994, but did not play for their first team. After two seasons at
Saint Brieuc, he moved to Nice where he stayed for five years. During this
spell, he tested positive for cannabis after a game against Wasquehal in
March 2000 and was given a five-month ban, three months of which were
suspended. Nice released him in the summer of 2002.
Before the abortive trial with Reading, he apparently had also had a trial
with a German club. He has subsequently joined Sturm Graz in Austria.
Angan has also played for his country. He was in the squad that took part in
the 2000 African Cup of Nations but not the 2002 tournament.