Former Manchester City striker Wilfried Bony made a surprise return to English football on Tuesday night when he scored a late winner for Newport County in a friendly against Swindon Town.
The rise of Bony is one of the great Premier League stories, although City fans don't hold particularly fond memories of his time at the Etihad Stadium. The Ivorian striker announced himself to the world while playing for Swansea City between 2013 and 2015, scoring 26 goals and providing six assists in 54 league outings.
His incredible start to life in the Premier League earned him a £28m move to City in January 2015, but over the course of a season-and-a-half he found the back of the net just 11 times in 46 appearances.
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Since leaving City on loan in 2016 and then permanently in 2017, Bony - who has 59 caps for Ivory Coast - has flitted from club to club. He was a shadow of his former self when he returned to Swansea in 2017, and he failed to settle at clubs in Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
After spending 2021 unattached to a club, he joined NEC Nijmegen but a hamstring injury restricted him to just one 15-minute substitute appearance. It was somewhat surprising then to see him turn out for Newport this week, who are currently 18th in League Two.
Bony came off the bench in the 55th minute and scored the winner in the 87th minute of Newport's 2-1 win having already hit the woodwork. The 33-year-old has previously trained with Newport in the past when searching for a new club, so it seems unlikely that the Welsh side will sign him.
After he trained with the club last year, Bony said: "I trained with Newport County, and I just want to thank them.
"They make me train with them all the time, so it was very important for me to keep fit until the moment arrived for me to be playing again. For the time, I'm not able to play for 90 minutes already, but in time, because I'm starting training already, I will very soon be playing 90 minutes."
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