Signed from Marseille for £13.5m in July 2015, Dimitri Payet quickly became a fan favourite at West Ham, wasting little time to make an impact in his first season.
The 12 goals and 15 assists he got in his first season at Upton Park were enough to earn him a spot in the France squad for the 2016 Euros, and all seemed to be going well.
However, his second campaign in England started off on the wrong foot, and a return to Marseille was organised in January 2017 for close to double the fee West Ham initially bought him for.
It was a great deal on paper, and one neither side have ever really regretted making, but it was surrounded by such drama that it keeps being talked about to this day, as shown by L’Equipe Magazine bringing it up in an interview with the player this week.
He said: “I left West Ham more for family reasons than sporting ones, because I’d extended my contract and still had five or six years left. I didn’t want for nothing, but to be good on the pitch, I need to be happy, and if my family isn’t happy, then I can’t be.
“I therefore made the choice to go back home. It wasn’t on a whim or a change of mind, because since I came back here, I haven’t moved, and I don’t plan on doing so. It was thought out.”
L’Equipe then remind him that James Collins, who played with Payet at West Ham, told BBC Radio 5 in England that ‘the Dimitri Payet who came back from the 2016 Euros wasn’t the same to the one he knew’.
The playmaker replied: “Everything started from there. I’d left Marseille when it wasn’t planned. I’d said the story wasn’t over, because the club needed to sell me. The Euros in France, and especially the games at the Vélodrome, rekindled the flame in me just like it did for my family. It accelerated the process of returning.”
