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Not even four years ago, Man City paid Swansea City a whopping £28m to sign Wilfried Bony.

Fast forward to September 2019 and the striker was gracing Ffordd Cae Duke in Loughor.

The 30-year-old is currently without a club having been released by the Swans in the summer and is keeping fit in south Wales with a view to finding himself a new team.

He recently trained with League Two side Newport County , and on Monday night, the forward turned out to feature in an eight-a-side match just a few miles away from the Liberty Stadium.

And it all came as a result of a friendship forged six years ago.

Karim Hadji, who lives in Morriston, met Bony in the stands at the Liberty during the frontman's first spell at the club and struck up a good relationship with him through the French language.

After keeping in touch with Bony over the years, the former Swan has twice played with Karim and his workmates in the small Welsh town.

"I met him after my first Swansea game in 2013 and we became good friends because I can speak French," said Karim.

"The first time I asked him to come and play with us earlier this year after his loan spell in Qatar, he was more than happy to come down.

"None of the other players believed me when I said he would come to join us. But he's a really humble guy and a great professional. They were shocked when he came down.

"He even bought us a few footballs to use as well. It's been brilliant.

"We play for an hour every Monday night and he came for a second time this week which was fantastic."

(Image: Athena Pictures/Getty Images)

Bony featured for Ivory Coast at the Africa Cup of Nations earlier this year, but has not featured at club level since his loan spell with Al-Arabi in Qatar during the latter half of the 2018/19 campaign.

The striker netted 34 times in 70 appearances during his first spell at Swansea but managed only four goals in his second stint with the club.