Those Sainey Nyassi Statistics, in Full

Today FC Edmonton announced the signing of Gambian Sainey Nyassi. Nyassi, 26, is a hella-fast diminutive winger who fizzled out in MLS but enjoyed a successful comeback in 2014 with Finnish club RoPS. Nyassi counts as a domestic player in the NASL and will compete with Michael Nonni and loanee Oskar Orn Hauksson for minutes out right.

Nyassi’s performance in MLS was sometimes exciting, oftentimes disappointing. He bounced between “integral starter” and “low-impact substitute” enough to get a concussion. Up until 2011 he was part of the Gambian national team pool, but a couple disappointing MLS seasons put paid to that. At first he was the better of the Nyassi twins, but while Sanna’s established himself Sainey’s injuries caused him to wander the wilderness after 2010. Having rediscovered his scoring boots in Finland, and started two games in the 2014-15 Europa League against Greek side Asteras, Nyassi returns to North America as a question mark.

The last winger with MLS experience the Eddies signed out of Finland was Mike Banner. That did not go brilliantly. Banner’s 2014 season, and maybe his career, was ruined by injury. But Nyassi hasn’t been a healthy bunny either. He missed the end of the 2011 MLS season and most of 2012 with a series of lower body problems, losing his spot in the New England eighteen. He bobbed up and down with DC United in 2013 but was still sporadically hurt and unremarkable when healthy. Nyassi has spent the past nine seasons on artificial turf in Foxborough, Washington, and Finland, and Edmonton’s new surface will hopefully be more forgiving than the infamous carpet in New England and DC, but the Eddies have had their share of leg problems. This is, perhaps, not a match made in heaven.

For Nyassi, whose calling card is speed, it wouldn’t take much of an injury crisis for this banner signing to turn into a Banner-like mistake. Yet you don’t get risk-free players in the NASL and at least Nyassi has produced in the past, while bringing that Horace James-like athletic punch that helped turn the Eddies’ fortunes around last fall. Ex-MLS signings always draw attention in the NASL, but FC Edmonton’s balanced midfield hopefully means Nyassi won’t be relied upon too heavily.

In the approved manner, here are Nyassi’s statistics from his professional career so far in North America and Europe. Regular season only[2]:

GP Strt MIN G A PKG SD SoG SoG% S% Yl Rd G/90 SD/90 SoG/90 2004-05 Gambia Ports Authority Gam-1 statistics not available 2005-06 Gambia Ports Authority Gam-1 statistics not available 2006-07 Gambia Ports Authority Gam-1 statistics not available 2007 New England MLS 1 0 8 0 0 0 0 0 nan nan 0 0 0.000 0.000 0.000 2008 New England MLS 25 18 1661 2 1 0 28 13 46.43% 15.38% 7 0 0.108 1.517 0.704 2009 New England MLS 28 22 1940 2 1 0 28 14 50.00% 14.29% 1 0 0.046 1.299 0.649 2010 New England MLS 28 27 2297 3 2 0 39 11 28.21% 27.27% 3 0 0.118 1.528 0.431 2011 New England MLS 21 8 959 1 0 0 21 10 47.62% 10.00% 1 0 0.094 1.971 0.938 2012 New England MLS 1 0 11 0 0 0 0 0 nan nan 0 0 0.000 0.000 0.000 2013 New England MLS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 nan nan 0 0 0.000 0.000 0.000 2013 DC United MLS 14 7 676 0 0 0 10 1 10.00% 0.00% 1 0 0.000 1.331 0.133 2014 RoPS Fin-1 19 17 1437 4 2 0 3 0 0.251

As you can see, despite his flash Nyassi has never been a classical attacker. While his shooting percentages have been consistently low this seems to be a family trait: his brother Sanna does exactly the same thing, speedsters hazarding many more low-percentage shots than classical strikers. Sainey’s best season, 2010, saw him tied for fourth on the Revolution in goals, second in shots directed, fifth in shots on target, and tied for fifth in assists. Small wonder that, between injuries and the emergence of more well-rounded attackers in New England, Nyassi struggled for playing time late in his MLS career. Yet there was still some value there, and his trademark direct speed provides a dimension that the Eddies previously lacked.

According to Wikipedia, a young Nyassi got his start with the Gambia Ports Authority team in the country’s first division, based in the capital of Banjul. Statistics are hard to come by, but he clearly did well enough to catch the eye at least domestically.

In a sense, by signing in Edmonton Nyassi returns to where his career started. He got his big break at the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada, making a surprising round-of-16 appearance. New England Revolution boss Steve Nicol scouted Gambia and Nyassi caught Nicol’s eye, even as they lost 2-1 to Austria at Commonwealth Stadium. Nyassi and teammate Kenny Mansally signed with New England shortly after the tournament, and though bureaucracy delayed their debuts both would remain part of the Revolution family for several seasons[3].

Nyassi began his MLS career in earnest in 2008. The season got off on the right foot: Nyassi’s first goal for the Revolution was MLS Goal of the Week for Week 1, a seemingly-straightforward run down the right-hand side in the third minute of stoppage time that simply outpaced the Houston Dynamo defenders until Nyassi plastered a shot from fifteen yards over Pat Onstad[4]. The 2008 Revolution were a good team and young Nyassi was one reason why. Had it not been for his eight minutes in 2007 Nyassi would certainly have gotten rookie of the year buzz (though it’s hard to imagine him beating eventual winner Sean Franklin). It wasn’t all good news: their playoff experience was short, an attempt to defend the US Open Cup ended in the semi-finals, and Nyassi and the Revolution got waxed 6-1 by Trinidad and Tobago’s Joe Public in the CONCACAF Champions League preliminary round. Still, admirable work from a 19-year-old winger. Nyassi was established as one to watch.

The first hiccup came in 2009, when Nyassi failed to make much progress. Another Goal of the Week in Week 3, as Nyassi made FC Dallas’s George John look stupid at range and stroked an 18-yard left-footer home[5] but defenders were giving his speed more respect. He bagged two goals and an assist that year (again), and even managed roughly the same number of shots. The Revolution finished third in the Eastern Conference (again) and fell to Chicago in the first round of the playoffs (again). 2010, which ought to have been when a 21-year-old Nyassi made the leap, was only a half-step forward: his best attacking season to date but the Revolution were on the decline. The question was whether Nyassi was a limited talent who could only stand out on bad teams, or whether his ascent was being held back by the cast of has-beens and never-weres that filled out Steve Nicol’s lineup card. It is a question that, frankly, has still not been convincingly answered.

2011 was where it all went wrong. Nyassi was in and out of the starting lineup, starting three of the first four games but only five more the rest of the year. He recorded neither a goal nor an assist until June 26 in Seattle, his only point of the campaign. Nyassi’s already-troubled season ended August 13 when he strained his right MCL[6] and subsequently his right hamstring, an injury that would recur. When the season ended Nyassi’s long-time fan, coach Steve Nicol, left the struggling Revolution and was replaced by former Revolution defender Jay Heaps. Heaps, it turned out, had little faith in his ex-teammate.

Nyassi had supposedly healed by the 2012 preseason, scoring in a friendly against FC Tucson, but against Boston College he re-injured the hamstring and was sidelined for four months[7]. Even when Nyassi recovered Heaps kept him out of the Revolution lineup. He made what turned out to be his last appearance in a New England shirt on July 18 in Montreal (where he faced Sanna), playing eleven nondescript minutes off the bench. The Revolution were returning to competitiveness, led by young guns like Diego Fagundez and Kelyn Rowe, and Nyassi was hardly going to get into the lineup at their expense. But there was still a fair share of thorough-going scrubs who Nyassi could well have beaten. Didn’t happen. A right adductor strain cost Nyassi what little chance he had of breaking back in, and though he was on the Revolution bench to end the season he didn’t see a minute.

Finally healthy at the beginning of 2013, Sainey rarely even made New England’s bench. Loyal to the last, the Revolution faithful ran a “#FreeNyassi” Twitter hashtag to show their support and in the end he was freed, though not in the manner they wanted: waived on May 16[8]. The lamentable DC United soon snapped him up, and with the Revolution rebounding Nyassi was back in the MLS basement. He made fourteen appearances, with seven starts, on that sorry squad and recorded few statistics of note. Though he participated in DC United’s US Open Cup-winning run, more injuries kept him out of the final rounds and several league games. Nyassi actually recorded a decent number of shots and threatened some offense on a team with few attacking options, but all in all his 2013 campaign was another disappointment.

It was no surprise that Nyassi was among those let go when the chainsaw went through DC’s deadwood at the end of 2013. As he tried to move clubs for the second time in a year naturally Nyassi was hurt; this time with a broken nose[9]. He did not resurface until June, when he went on trial with Finnish first division club RoPS (thanks, ironically, to their injury crisis)[10]. Nyassi made his Finnish debut June 8 at FC Honka and immediately became a regular. June 27, at Frank Jonke’s former club FF Jaro, Nyassi scored his first goal in two years, bumping home an opportunistic header off a failed clearance from a long throw[11]. He went on to score three more goals that year, the best being his last: in the season finale Nyassi capped a goal-and-two-assist performance against domestic powerhouse HJK Helsinki by chasing down a seemingly hopeless long ball, exploiting a mistake by Finnish international Valtteri Moren, and sweeping home a sly left-footer[12]. Nyassi’s four goals and two assists in a bit more than half a season was a fine mark, third on the team. But his hopes of an improved contract were dashed, as RoPS elected to let Nyassi move on[13].

Though naturally a right-sided player, in Finland Nyassi played quite a bit of left wing and looked dangerous. He’s got a bit of touch with both feet and can shoot with power, though his sometimes-dodgy runs and positioning don’t make this as decisive an advantage as I’d like. He’s also been a decent but not brilliant crosser from either side, though he won’t eat Lance Laing’s lunch there. Defensively he’s better than you probably think but that doesn’t mean “good”. And for such a little player he’s fair with his head. Two of his goals for RoPS were headers; both came from dodgy defending but you do get that in the NASL. Given Edmonton’s strength out left with Lance Laing, Hanson Boakai, Tomas Granitto, and the versatile Oskar Orn Hauksson, the smart money says Nyassi will go back to the right wing. He’s even been spotted at fullback, though it’s hard to imagine him returning there.

Given Nyassi’s modest contribution in recent seasons and his nasty injury bug I’m not sold on this signing. Certainly, I hope Nyassi wasn’t too expensive and his is by no means the first position I’d be looking to fill. That said, even a versatile, quick impact sub would fill a need for the Eddies, so keep our expectations modest and we may be pleased.