Wilfried Bony recounts tough and frustrating Stoke City spell

Former Ivory Coast striker Wilfried Bony has recounted a frustrating moment while playing for English side Stoke City.

The burly attacker was on the roaster of Manchester City before switching to Stoke City then in the premier league during the 2016-17 season on loan.

🇨🇮🗣️ Wilfried Bony reveals the dirty tricks Stoke used against him to force him out of the club… 👀

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Bony opened up on how Stoke City wanted to forcefully offload him into a lucrative deal in the Chinese Super League.

Bony won the 2015 AFCON with Ivory Coast

“I went to Stoke [City] and when I reached there, everything was fine in the beginning [and] at that time in China, their football was coming up and they put in a lot of money like Saudi Arabia did the last five years,” Wilfried Bony told THE OBI ONE Podcast.

“I think the coach was Manuel Pelligrini and I didn’t know that they were interested in me from China.

“We trained in Stoke and one day before my birthday, the coach made an interview and announced that the club was interested in me and so if I’m interested they could arrange for me to leave.

“I didn’t know about it so I went to train and Charlie Adams told me that I was going for big money. They treated me very badly there, they wanted to frustrate me to go to China but it didn’t work.

Bony played 56 times for the Elephants of Ivory Coast

The 37-year-old was a standout performer from his days at Sparta Prague, Vitesse Arnheim and Swansea City before Manchester City snapped him up in a four-and-a-half-year deal worth £25 million, which was to rise to £28 million.

He returned to Swansea for two seasons before wrapping up at Al Arabi of Qatar on loan, Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia, NEC Nijmegen and Always Ready in Bolivia.

Wilfried Bony played 56 times for the Elephants of Ivory Coast, scoring 16 goals and winning the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations hosted in Equatorial Guinea.

His club achievements include Czech First League title with Sparta Prague, Football League Cup with Manchester City in 2015 plus a top scorer’s accolade in the Eredivisie with NEC Nijmegen 2012.