Wycombe Wanderers have confirmed the signing of former Crystal Palace winger Sullay Kaikai.
The 25-year-old joins the Chairboys on a two-year deal following his release from Blackpool this summer, after he helped the Tangerines achieve promotion to the Championship.
The Sierra Leone international joins Josh Scowen and Oliver Pendlebury as the club’s latest recruits for the season ahead.
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The club confirmed the news on July 15
Welcome to Wycombe, @SullayKaikai!#Chairboys
— Wycombe Wanderers (@wwfcofficial) July 15, 2021
Manager Gareth Ainsworth said: “Sullay is a fantastic talent and exactly the type of player who will get fans off their seats.
“He’s always impressed me when I’ve seen him play and his experience with Blackpool last year, where he was a regular in a promotion-winning team, makes him an ideal character to bring into our squad.”
Kaikai started his career as a 15-year-old with Palace and spent nine years with the Eagles between 2010 and 2019, where he played 11 first-team matches, scoring once.
Out of his 11 appearances for the South London side, three of these outings came in the Premier League against Southampton (2015/16), Manchester United (2016/17) and Liverpool (2017/18), which were all away from Selhurst Park.
His only goal for the club was in a 3-2 home defeat to Newcastle United in the League Cup, back in September 2014.
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Around these sporadic appearances for Palace across several seasons, Kaikai enjoyed loan spells away from the club.
Kaikai plays for Sierra Leone internationally
Proud to make my full debut for Sierra Leone in such a crucial match and be part of history with legends such as @keikamara @zengalay and others who have fought long and hard for this.
— Sullay Kaikai (@SullayKaikai) June 19, 2021
AFCON we’re back after 25 years! To see what it meant to the nation was a priceless experience pic.twitter.com/QcDnC2QZl1
These moves were to aid the pacey winger to gain valuable first-team experience to hopefully one day, push for a place in the Palace starting line-up.
The loan spells saw Kaikai join Crawley Town (2013/14), Cambridge United (2014/15), Shrewsbury Town (2015/16), Brentford (2016/17) and Charlton Athletic (2017/18), where he made a total 95 appearances for the mentioned clubs.
Statistically, his best season was with Shresbwury where he scored 12 goals in 29 matches to help the Shrews avoid relegation into League Two, as they finished one place and four places from the drop zone.
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He finally cut his ties at Palace in January 2019 to join NAC Breda in Holland, but after only playing six times in the latter stages of the season, he moved back to England and joined Blackpool that summer.
There is a lot of excitement around Kaikai's arrival
— JJ's Left Foot (@JJsLeftFoot) July 15, 2021
In all, he played 68 times for the former PL side and scored seven goals, helping the Tanageries to achieve promotion to the Championship, as they defeated Lincoln City in this year's play-off final.
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Sadly, Kaikai didn't play in the Wembley showdown, but he did score in his final appearance for the club, which was in a 1-0 away win at Sunderland in April.
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