After spending his entire career in France, Paul Bernardoni left Angers last summer, at the age of 26, for the Turkish club Konyaspor, which has played in the first division since 2013. There, nothing happened. went as planned for the former French international hopeful (18 caps). The goalkeeper was, like many other footballers in this country, the victim of late payment of his salary.
“I was suspicious,” swears Bernardoni in the columns of the newspaper Le Parisien. Reassured by other players who passed through Turkey, who told him that “you will be one or two months late but in the end, you get everything back”, the native of Évry launched himself. He received nothing after two months at Konyaspor. Annoyed by the lack of consideration from his leaders, Bernardoni contacted FIFA, which triggered a first payment. But the leaders did not appreciate it. “Then, no more salary for three and a half months until I terminate my contract,” relates the former doorman for Angers, Bordeaux, Saint-Étienne and Nîmes.
Bernardoni, also surprised by the absence of a translator on site that he had been promised, said he left money on the table. But he does not make it the central point of his misfortunes in Turkey, on the contrary. “Too bad if it makes you smile, but my dog, who accompanied me since the start of my career, was poisoned,” shares Bernardoni. There are a lot of stray dogs there and people don’t like them very much. The death of my dog accentuated my desire to leave this country very quickly.” And perhaps also his loneliness, his wife having had the greatest difficulty following him.
“There was a visa problem with my wife. She had a three month old one, and the club had promised to take care of her so that she would stay. There too, nothing at all,” laments Bernardoni. A starter in the 17 Konyaspor matches for which he was available, the French goalkeeper joined Yverdon Sport, 9th in the Swiss championship, this winter. He is committed to it until June 30. Konyaspor is 18th in the Turkish championship, in a relegation position.
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