Doumbia joins Basel on loan

Ivory Coast international Seydou Doumbia has moved to Swiss side FC Basel on loan from Italian club Roma following his unsuccessful spell with Newcastle United.


The 28-year-old has been on the books of Roma since January 2015 but has spent most of his time away from the Eternal City, first being loaned back to Russia’s CSKA Moscow (the club Roma bought him from) before a spell in England with the Magpies which began earlier this year.

Doumbia arrived at St James Park with great hopes of establishing himself in the Premier League and a deal was reportedly in place for the club to purchase the striker outright if he impressed.

Sadly, the Elephants player made just three appearances in five months and was unable to make much of an impression for Newcastle, who suffered relegation down to the second-tier Championship.

Roma will be hoping that Doumbia enjoys a strong showing in Switzerland and recaptures the form that made him such a deadly attacker in his last spell in the country: the Ivorian scored 57 goals in 78 appearances for BSC Young Boys from 2008 to 2010.

He went on to score 84 goals in 129 appearances for CSKA before Roma swooped for him, but the goals have since dried up for the attacker, who needs to get to scoring form if he is to a part of Ivory Coast’s squad at the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations.