In recent days, the news of Olympique de Marseille has been making the big news in the French media. It must be said that in two days, the Marseille club was at the heart of two XXL announcements. The first relates of course to the club’s takeover project led by Franco-Tunisian businessman Mohamed Ayachi Ajroudi. The second is the surprise extension of Dimitri Payet (33) until 2024.
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“Dimitri Payet wanted this event. He came to meet me to be Marseillais for life. He wanted to end his career here and have a retraining project within the club. We have started our discussions and Dimitri Payet will extend until 2024 “, said OM president Jacques-Henri Eyraud last Saturday at a press conference. An unexpected event, especially after the Mi’kmaq concerning the refusal of the Reunionese to lower his emoluments during the coronavirus crisis.
In the end, Payet therefore agreed to divide his salary by 2 for the next season, 30% for the 2021-2022 season and 40 to 60% for the last two years (2022-2023 and 2023-2024). Finally, the attacking midfielder has also given up its European qualification bonuses. A very strong gesture welcomed by a JHE summoned to rectify the financial situation of the Olympian club as soon as possible.
Negotiations promise to be close
And if Payet has publicly refused to make his case an example to follow, its president hopes that other tenors of the locker room will follow. Three names are also mentioned this morning in the columns of The team : Steve Mandanda (35), Kevin Strootman (30) and Florian Thauvin (27). Three cases not cited at random since they are part of the group of the biggest salaries of OM (€ 360,000 monthly for Mandanda, € 500,000 for Strootman and € 421,000 for Thauvin). How will these elements react? Will they follow Payet’s footsteps?
Linked to OM until 2021, Mandanda is in the same situation as his teammate. However, no trend has yet emerged. Ditto for Thauvin. Under contract until 2021 too, the 2018 world champion has yet to receive anything from his leaders. But there is no doubt that this should not drag on since Marseille cannot afford to leave such an asset unarmoured a year from the end of its lease. Finally, the sports daily specifies that Strootman, from which the club absolutely wanted to part, will now not be closed to negotiations, even if an agreement is still far from being won. Business to follow.
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