Keita Balde’s agent, Roberto Calenda has accused Lazio of disrespecting his client after he was left out of the squad that defeated Juventus to win the Supercoppa Italia last weekend.
The Senegalese winger who is attracting interest from Juventus did not make the bench and admitted he was ‘profoundly hurt’ by the coach’s decision to not include him.
Rumors had been circulating in Italy that the player declined to play in order to force a move away, or that he was declared injured on purpose by the Stadio Olimpico outfit in order not to risk him getting an actual injury that will make a sale impossible.
But his agent has debunked this rumours as false via his social media page.
"I've read it all these two days," Calenda wrote on Twitter.
"I can categorically deny that Keita refused to play or that he had any muscular problems [as he also clarified after being excluded].
"In fact, he has always put effort into training, preparing himself for games as normal [and everybody knows how well he prepares, considering how last season, even playing only a handful of games, he scored 16 goals].
"The truth is there for all to see. The club has not made a suitable offer to Keita to renew his contract and they did not call him up for the first important game of the season. I'm not saying that he didn't play -- they didn't even call him up.
"Clearly the club do not intend to invest in the players. Everything else is just chatter aimed at covering up the truth."
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