MANCHESTER UNITED COMPLETE SALE OF FORWARD MASON GREENWOOD TO MARSEILLE FOR €31 MILLION
Manchester United have completed the sale of forward Mason Greenwood to French side Olympique de Marseille, the club confirmed on Thursday.
As first reported by The Athletic’s David Ornstein, United and Marseille reached an agreement on a €31.6 million (£26.6 million) deal for the English forward last week. The transfer took a little longer to complete due to personal terms between the Ligue Un side and the player. Greenwood had, however, informed Marseille of his intention to join the team earlier last week.
Marseille will pay a €27.6 million (£23.3 million) fixed fee, with the remaining €4 million (£3.4 million) paid in total add-ons. United also included a 50% sell-on clause for Greenwood if Marseille were to move him on to another team during the length of his contract with the club.
Greenwood is United’s fourth most expensive sale trailing only Angel Di Maria’s move to Paris Saint-Germain (£44 million), Romelu Lukaku’s transfer to Inter Milan (€80 million/£68.1 million) and Cristiano Ronaldo’s £80 million transfer to Real Madrid in 2009. The Bradford-born forward signed a five year contract, which will keep him in the south of France until June 2029.
Greenwood landed in Marseille late Wednesday night and was welcomed by some excited fans at the city airport.
Per European football transfer journalist Fabrizio Romano, Marseille’s hierarchy including club President Pablo Longoria and Sporting director Medhi Benatia had been working on acquiring Greenwood for weeks. Both executives think highly of the 22-year-old, as does new Marseille manager, Roberto De Zerbi.
De Zerbi, who coached last year for Premier League side Brighton before parting ways in May, has reportedly been speaking with Greenwood regularly during negotiations, calling him almost every day. “For sure, Mason is a world-class player,” said De Zerbi said on Greenwood’s potential acquisition last month. “I don’t know his background. No matter the player… once they sign here, they become like my children. I protect them, always.”
It seemed as though Greenwood was always going to end up being a Marseille player, barring any surprises, as talks between United and the French team carried on over the past few weeks. Italian side Lazio, however, were amongst some of the strong candidates to acquire the Englishman as Lazio team President Claudio Lotito complained about interference in acquiring Greenwood by other teams in a conversation with Italian newspaper Messaggero this week.
“I have offered €25 million plus add-ons and a 50% sell-on clause to Manchester United for Mason Greenwood,” said Lotito. “[But] several clubs tried to enter the race just to disturb us and make the deal collapse… after Juventus, Napoli [also] did the same. Maybe they are terrified by the fact that we can take him and they want to ruin everything.”
With Mason Greenwood’s future appearing secure, the young forward can now go back to playing football again and reviving his career in the French league. Greenwood was out casted at Manchester United following a domestic abuse scandal with his partner – now fiancée – and moved to Spanish side Getafe to play last season.
The England international impressed with the La Liga outfit, racking up eight goals and six assists in the Spanish top flight which saw him win the club’s Player of the Year award. The striker-cum-right winger hasn’t featured for United since his arrest in January 2022 for alleged sexual misconduct, controlling behavior and assault and sat out half of the 2021/22 season despite all charges against him being subsequently dropped.
Greenwood made 129 total appearances for Manchester United and scored 35 goals following his Champions League debut against Paris Saint-Germain in March, 2019.
-Maher Abucheri
Twitter: @pabloikonyero
Photo: Ardfern. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.