Author: BLOGGERPARUNG

As reported by L’Équipe this morning, whoever signs Dortmund’s Norwegian striker Erling Haaland will have to set aside a €300m budget to get the deal over the line.

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Despite appearing increasingly frustrated in a Dortmund shirt of late, the Bundesliga club remain keen to convince their star player to remain at the club. The French sports daily paper report that BVB are ready to offer the 21-year-old a €16m gross annual salary which would surpass the highest-paid player Marco Reus by some distance, Reus is currently at €12m. Haaland, however, has made his decision to leave.

At the end of this season, his €75m release clause will be available to be activated and, with the player’s contract up in 2024, Dortmund general manager Hans-Joachim Watzke has set an ultimatum with the player’s entourage to make a decision on his future clear by February.

PSG are among the contenders to sign the striker with Kylian Mbappé (23) likely to leave for free this summer but they will need to ringfence €300m to sign Haaland. The €75m transfer fee will be added to €20m for agent Mino Raiola’s commission and that of Haaland’s father Alf-Inge as well as €30m to €35m annual salary over a six-year contract, say L’Équipe. Such an outlay will greatly thin out the list of potential suitors.

Haaland has managed 76 goals in 79 games for Dortmund since joining in January 2020, that’s a goal every 81 minutes in all competitions.

Le Parisien report this afternoon that fourth tier side Versailles will be made to play their Coupe de France tie against Toulouse away from home, due to a lighting issue with their ground.

The Montbauron stadium was due to hold the round of 16 tie against the Ligue 2 outfit. However, the ground is not licensed to hold games by night, and the club’s request to move the tie to an afternoon during the weekend of January 29-30 was turned down.

The ground’s lack of a license is down to its proximity to the city’s world-famous palace. As no light source must be visible from the King’s room within a five kilometre radius, the stadium is not allowed to use floodlights and as such games cannot be played after dark. The centuries-old rule has posed an obstacle to the club in recent times, given its ambitions to climb up the football ladder.

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Versailles, who are in the race for promotion in the league, instead came to an agreement with their opponents to play the game in the south of France instead.

As reported by La Provence, Marseille defender Álvaro González is seeing interest from La Liga this month.

Largely out of the picture this season under Jorge Sampaoli at Marseille, an offer is being seriously considered by Valencia who have included Álvaro on their shortlist of potential recruits but, a club sources tells La Provence, they have yet to contact OM for the player.

French teams had also enquired for the 32-year-old centre-back but are yet to follow up with anything concrete say the outlet. Although the player is keen to stay at OM.

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Julien Maynard of Téléfoot reports this evening that French defender Samuel Umtiti could leave Barcelona on loan this month, having signed a contract extension yesterday.

The World Cup winner extended his deal with the Catalan club until 2026, in a deal which saw him reduce his salary in order to alleviate the club’s wage bill, having been sidelined over the last few years following his injury issues.

The centre-back’s intention is to go out on loan in order to find playing time, in order to then return to Barcelona. There have been links in Spain, England, and Italy, but none as of yet in France.

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Lille have announced that Brazilian midfielder Thiago Maia has left the club, signing on a permanent deal for Flamengo, the club he has spent the last two years on loan at.

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The 24-year-old had been at the Rio de Janeiro-based team for the last 24 months after initially arriving in France in 2017 from Santos.

The former Brazilian youth international made 68 appearances for Les Dogues in his time there, scoring one goal.

As reported by Ouest France, Ligue 1 strugglers FC Lorient are in talks to sign former Hull City, West Brom and Rennes winger Kamil Grosicki.

Lorient made an offer of €200k to his current club, Polish side Pogon Szczecin who are currently second in the Polish top tier, but Pogon do not want to let the 33-year-old player leave unless Lorient play €500k plus a further €300k should the club avoid relegation to Ligue 2 this season.

Grosicki’s standout Ligue 1 season came in 2015/16 as he scored nine and added four assists in 33 league games. He played 93 games in all competitions with Rennes between 2013 and 2017.

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OGC Nice midfielder Mario Lemina has announced his retirement from the Gabonese national team, forced to quit the squad mid-AFCON owing to heart complications after contracting COVID-19.

Lemina took to Instagram to denounce rumours that the health reason for his exit was merely a cover for the fact that he was drunk over the weekend and behaving unprofessionally.

“I will not give oxygen to the lies that seek to harm me. I have nothing to do with that. I feel bad for my national team to be surrounded only liars in search of clicks. Good luck to you for the competition and for the future challenges. Now out of sight but close to my heart. By wanting too much to solve the problems around the national team, you are the one who puts yourself in harms way. Because all this wickedness has been in place for years. There is nothing more to be done… I definitively withdraw from the national team.”

Investigative journalist Romain Molina has put out a Tweet encouraging Lemina to give all the money and the cars back that the Gabon FA apparently gave the player so that he would represent his country in the 1st place…

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Lille have this afternoon announced the signing of midfielder Hatem Ben Arfa on a free transfer, with the former French international signing a 6-month contract.

The 34-year-old joins Les Dogues on a short-term deal after half a year as a free agent, after leaving Bordeaux at the end of last season.

The mercurial midfielder makes LOSC the seventh Ligue 1 club of his career, after playing for Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Paris Saint-Germain, Rennes and Bordeaux.

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As reported by Foot Mercato, Premier League club Watford lead several Ligue 1 sides in the race to sign Emmanuel Agbadou of Belgian top tier club Eupen, who are currently 12th in the standings.

The 24-year-old centre-back, also capable of playing at the base of midfield, has been capped once by Ivory Coast and scored five times in 24 games since arriving from Ivory Coast club FC San Pedro in September 2020.

Discussions between Watford and the player have been underway for several days with the player under contract at Eupen until 2025.

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24-year-old English midfielder Patrick Roberts today terminated his loan with Ligue 1 side ESTAC Troyes from Manchester City, in order to complete a permanent move to English 3rd division side Sunderland.

Roberts, who joined ESTAC on loan from the Citizens this summer, but he only made two appearances for the French club, playing for just 90 minutes.

The deal is understood to have been done on a free transfer, with Roberts signing a 6-month deal with Sunderland.

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