N'Doye: Solbakken hails Senegal star after departing Kobenhavn

Kobenhavn manager Stale Solbakken has praised Dame N'Doye as one of the greatest players ever to have played for the club.

The Senegal international ended his second stint with the side after failing to reach an agreement on a new contract with the Telia Parke outfit.  

The 35-year-old forward returned to the Danish club in the summer of 2018 as a free agent after leaving Turkish Super Lig side Trabzonspor.   

During his two stints with the side, the striker racked up 118 goals in 218 appearances across all competitions, despite a serious injury which limited his appearances to 14 in the 2019-20 campaign.

Solbakken has praised the contribution of the former Lokomotiv Moscow striker to Kobenhavn and explained how the club made a frantic effort to tie him to a new contract.

"N'Doye is without a doubt the best striker in the history of the club and the Superliga, and he writes himself in the history books as one of the greatest ever at FCK. There can be no two opinions about that," Solbakken told the club website.

"We also had a desire to keep him in the club for another year despite his serious injuries, but he has declined the offer of the contract extension we had presented. We offered both a short-term deal so he could play against Basaksehir and also an extension until next summer.

"It is clear that the serious injuries and his age have meant that we have had to be responsible in relation to the finances of the contract, but we stretched ourselves as far as we possibly could in the current situation and we have made two good and fair deals, we believe.

 "We are sad that we have not been able to reach an agreement, but we have been through a lot together and we part as friends with lots of respect for each other.

"There were some who questioned us when we brought N'Doye back to FCK a few years ago, but he has shown that he is a player at the highest international level when he is injury-free. At the same time he is a leader by virtue of his strength and mentality, and we will miss him at the club, but the door will always be open for him.

"Now that we won't have N'Doye among the forward options, we now have a situation where the likes of Jonas Wind, Michael Santos and Mikkel Kaufmann can play as pure strikers, while Mohamed Daramy and Viktor Fischer can also play in forward positions.

"We must now analyse how that formation can work, and whether we need to adjust further there."

N'Doye, who has 26 caps for Senegal, has previously featured for Panathinaikos, Lokomotiv Moscow and Hull City, among others.