Welcomed like a hero on Sunday night, Iliman Ndiaye is on the verge of becoming the latest Marseille signing after the Ligue 1 side agreed a fee with Sheffield United for the transfer.
There has been some discrepancies when it comes to the fee the Blades will actually get from the French club, but the general consensus is that it will range between €17-20m.
Following this, Foot Mercato in France have published an article to give the behind-the-scenes insight on how the transfer of the Sheffield United star took place.
This transfer came after a bit of a rollercoaster from the player’s end, who was first excited about the move, before changing his mind and wanting to stay in England.
That’s when Foot Mercato add some good details about it all, explaining that Pablo Longoria and Marcelino, Marseille’s new manager, gave it their all to get a transfer over the line.
They knew he would be the ‘ideal recruit’ for them, and managed to convince Ndiaye to come ‘by offering him a number of good sporting prospects’, including the chance of playing alongside Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Marcelino also told him that ‘he wanted him to progress and appreciated his qualities’, which was a speech that ‘hit the nail on the head’ for the Sheffield United player.
The next move was for the two clubs to reach an agreement, and it’s stated the Blades ‘were intelligent’ in allowing him to leave, as they knew that it was the forward’s ‘dream’ to play in Marseille.
That’s why they ‘didn’t block him’, especially because he had always been ‘decent and friendly’ with the newly promoted Premier League side.
An agreement ‘worth around €18m’ was then reached, allowing the player to now ‘live out his dream’ in the south of France.
