Moukandjo : «Rennes did not give me enough time»

Since he left Stade Rennes for Nîmes in 2009, Cameroonese forward Benjamin Moukandjo affirmed himself as one of the best right wingers in Ligue 2. With 6 goals in a season and a half (three so far this season), he attracted the attention of several Ligue 1 clubs in the process.

Questioned by website mercato365.com, Moukandjo looked back at his time in Rennes. “It isn’t a great memory, he explains. When I arrived there, I was directly coming from Cameroon. Over there, they did not give me enough time to adapt. It was a different world to me at the time”.

Arrived in June 2007 with a flattering reputation, the forward had seen his initial season plagued by recurrent injuries, before a rather unconvincing loan spell at Sannois-Saint-Gratien in2008-2009. A period of doubt for Moukandjo. « I was asking myself a lot of questions, he remembers. Was I really good enough? I was in the ditch. I wasn’t helped by my experience in Rennes. But I’m not holding any grudges. I managed to find my energy and my strength back”.

With a contract ending in June 2011, Moukandjo could soon make the big leap to Ligue 1, next summer or even this winter. A Ligue 1 championship he could not even think of in Brittany, when he was left a long way away from the professional squad.