Serbian striker Samir Nurkovic insists his focus has always remained on doing his job on the field despite his big money case against Royal AM.
Nurkovic is now with SuperSport United having also played for TS Galaxy since filing his case at FIFA after his brief stay at the troubled club who are now not even honouring fixtures until further notice.
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The 32-year-old was only ever paid once – an amount of R245 943,91 on November 11, 2022 – and must be paid approximately R11,1 million to settle the case which has been to FIFA and CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport).
According to the 21-page arbitral award by CAS which classified Royal AM's appeal at CAS as inadmissible, Nurkovic's package at Thwihli Thwahla was R5 040 000 (July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023) then R5 280 000 for the second year (July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024) and R5 520 000 for the optional third year (July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025).
His claim was partially awarded and after failure to pay, Royal AM have since served a three-window transfer ban with further sanctions looming due to their failure to comply with the FIFA order.
"Certain things in professional football career are beyond the control of a player," says Nurkovic.
"This kind of stuff there are people who deal with it.
"You as a professional, you just need to keep your mind on one main thing which is improving yourself each and every day at training and game.
"Just do the best of your possibilities and the results will come.
"So, these things are not relevant and not important on the field, so you just need to keep working hard and be consistent like I'm saying, and the results will come," says Nurkovic who has found joy at SuperSport under Gavin Hunt.
"After a long time not playing finally joined such an amazing club, very accommodating… So far, I'm enjoying it.
"Obviously, reality is that I haven't played for a long time so I'm trying to get my fitness back, trying hard and I need to do is stay consistent and keep working hard.
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"I have biggest respect for him Gavin Hunt, he is amazing coach.
"As a professional football player, it doesn't matter what coach is there.
"I'm just trying to do my best," he explains.