Bakery Jatta has been through a lot since the Sport Bild article that questioned his identity. It was a heinous campaign to discredit an illustrious citizen from the Gambia.
It led to protests from teams playing against Hamburg whenever Jatta was in the lineup. Prominent among them are Karlsruhe, Bochum and Nuremberg. They launched an appeal to nullify the matches he played.
They questioned his legality as a player because of doubts about his status remain unclear.
Finally, the office responsible for investigating the authenticity of Jatta’s documents has issued a press statement today:
“The available documents do not provide any reliable evidence that would justify measures under aliens’ law. The doubts that arose about the accuracy of the information remain unclear during the hearing“.
The conclusion is a boon to the consistent story of Jatta all along that he is not a fake!
Jatta’s fight to clear his name is not over yet. Nuremberg’s appeal against Jatta will take place on the ninth of September in Frankfurt. They have a key witness who is ready to testify against him.
On the pitch, Jatta is impervious to the rumours against him. Many teams booed him on the pitch.
He scored a wonderful goal during the weekend for Hamburg against Hannover(3-0 )in the second division, Bundesliga. And he received a round of applause from his teeming fans from Hamburg.
Jatta is here to stay as a law-abiding, tax-paying immigrant doing what he loves the most-football.
Update:
The case against Jatta’s eligibility to play for Hamburg no longer holds. Nuremberg has withdrawn its appeal against Jatta following the official statement from the district office in Hamburg, confirming what we all knew from the start: Jatta is not an age cheat.
Another good news for Jatta is the prospects of playing for Germany’s U-21 team if the plans of Stefan Kuntz comes to fruition. They could speed up his naturalization to play for Germany.
[…] were media reports that circulated the rumour about Jatta’s documents. However, Bundesligavibes doubted the veracity of such claims from the incipient […]