Samir Nurkovic insists he was 'fit' at Royal AM

Nurkovic was lured by owner Shauwn Mkhize as a free agent on 1 July last year after leaving Kaizer Chiefs, but the contract was terminated three months into what was meant to be a two-year deal.  

The player’s attorney Davor Lazic immediately referred the matter to FIFA claiming the agreement had been breached, which has subsequently resulted in Royal AM owning Nurkovic R12-million.

But the amount owed is yet to be paid and the world football governing body has hit the Premier Soccer League outfit with an indefinite transfer ban. 

Speaking exclusively to Metro FM’s Sport Night Amplified with host Andile Ncube on the back of confirmation he was now joining TS Galaxy with immediate effect, Nurkovic was confronted with the Royal AM questions. 

"Those kind of things are beyond my control. It’s really on my lawyer and agency side to comment, I really wasn’t involved much. But to be honest it was a really difficult period for me to find myself in," he said. 

"I was 100 percent fit to play. My last injury was far back – at Chiefs. Everybody knows that, the entire continent knows that. It was after the [CAF] Champions League final, so that’s two years back."

The 31-year-old now has a fresh start with The Rockets, but there were talks with Cape Town City and Morocco’s Raja Casablanca before.

"I trained with City for about 10 days and everything was good on my side, we just couldn’t agree on personal terms. At Raja it was the same – the coaching staff [Josef Zinnbauer and Fadlu Davids] really wanted me there," the striker explained.

"They know me from South Africa and I was in Saudi Arabia for the pre-season camp for 15 days. But there were discussions between the club and my agent, I guess they couldn’t agree on the terms and now I am back in SA."