Jerry Akaminko
Ghana defender Jerry Akaminko will not sign for MLS side Real Salt Lake after the two sides failed to reach an agreement over the terms of his contract.
General manager Craig Waibel says they are disappointed that they are unable to agree on the terms of the contract as they were desperate to sign the impressive centre-back.
The 27-year-old overly impressed the Americans after spending the last two weeks on trial with the RSL during their pre-season training in Arizona.
Akaminko played in two friendlies and even before the second match for the club he was offered a contract by the MLS side.
However the two parties could not reach an agreement which has resulted in the deal being called off.
"We couldn't agree to terms," Waibel said.
"We definitely wanted him and he definitely had a lot of interest being here, but in the end, MLS contracts are interesting — especially on a world market for a player like him. There were terms in the end that we just couldn't get to."
Akaminko becomes the third international center back who trained with RSL this off-season and has been near the finish line of sealing a deal but haven't been able to finalize.
"It's disappointing, but the good news is we've already found three very good players," Waibel said. "Unfortunately, now we're at the number three, not the number two. But we're confident. We found three guys we really enjoyed … We'll find a fourth."
RSL and Akaminko, who spent the last seven seasons playing in the Turkish Super Lig, were in deep negotiations throughout the week.
On Tuesday, a report surfaced that Akaminko had agreed to sign with RSL. Waibel soon after refuted the report, saying Tuesday that the deal was "definitely still not done."
He was right.
"We thought [Akaminko] was good," Waibel said. "He really enjoyed being with us. It's just a bummer that we thought we were going to be able to get it all worked out, but we couldn't."
Talks broke off within the last 24-to-36 hours, Waibel said.
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