The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Dimitri Payet

  • Payet seals £25m Marseille return

    Payet seals £25m Marseille return

     

     

     

    France international Dimitri Payet has completed a £25million move back to Marseille from West Ham.

    Payet returns to Ligue 1 side Marseille on a four-and-a-half-year contract after the two clubs agreed a fee on Sunday.

    The 29-year-old playmaker will be officially presented alongside Marseille president Jacques-Henri Eyraud and sports director Andoni Zubizarreta on Monday.

    Payet joined the Premier League club from Marseille in 2015 and starred in his first season in England, earning a place in France’s Euro 2016 squad where he scored three goals in a run to the final.

    Despite signing a bumper five-year deal in February last year, Payet became unsettled with West Ham struggling for form this term and an exit had been on the cards ever since manager Slaven Bilic revealed the Frenchman did not want to play for the club midway through January.

    In total, Payet netted 18 goals in 66 appearances for West Ham.

    He scored 15 times in 83 outings in all competitions during his first spell at Marseille, staying at Stade Velodrome for two seasons after leaving Lille.

    It has been a period of change for Marseille since American tycoon and former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt purchased the club.

    Ex-Roma head coach Rudi Garcia replaced interim boss Franck Passi and France international Patrice Evra arrived from Italian champions Juventus, with Marseille sixth in Ligue 1 after 22 rounds.

  • Payet rejects £500k move to China

    Payet rejects £500k move to China

     

     
    West Ham’s Dimitri Payet has rejected an offer of £500k a week to play in China.
    Sky Sports claims  that Hebei China Fortune and two other Chinese Super League clubs have contacted Payet’s agent to say they are willing to pay him £26m a year.

    Hebei China Fortune are managed by former Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini.

    Payet is currently refusing to play for West Ham and has told manager Slaven Bilic he wants to return to France for family reasons. He earns £125,000-a-week at West Ham and is willing to take a pay cut of at least 30 per cent to move back to France.

    Marseille made a second bid of £20m for Payet on Monday but the Hammers want at least £30m.

  • Payet wants to force Marseille move, goes on strike

    Payet wants to force Marseille move, goes on strike

    Dimitri Payet has gone on strike because west Ham United  bluntly rejected a bid of just under £20 million from Marseille.

    According to the Telegraph, Payet had told the club: “ I will never kick a ball again for West Ham”

    West Ham are, nevertheless, adamant they will not sell their star player during this transfer window – but that may have to change if they receive far higher offers and the damaging stand-off continues this month.

    A club source confirmed that Marseille have bid for their former player and described the offer as “low”. It is thought to be just under £20 million plus a £2.5 million bonus if Marseille qualify for the Champions League.Payet has been unhappy at West Ham since returning to the club from the Euros in the summer

    However it seems that Payet, who has been unsettled since returning from the Euros last summer, has been encouraged to push for the move back to his former club who he left in 2015 for an initial fee of £10.7 million rising to £14 million.

    Meanwhile West Ham manager Slaven Bilic  has insisted in an interview as he stated: “We have said we don’t want to sell our best players but Payet does not want to play for us,” Bilic said. “We are not going to sell him.”

    In February 2016 Payet signed a new five-year contract to tie him to the Hammers to the summer of 2021 – with a significant pay rise, believed to be double the money he was previously on.

    But Payet has not been the same, sources say, since returning from the Euros when he thought he was going to earn a big move away from West Ham. There was talk of super-clubs such as Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain coming in for him – with West Ham co-chairman David Gold tweeting that he would not be sold for less than £50 million – but no bid was received.

     

  • Kane, Vardy, Mahrez in PFA Team of the Year

    Kane, Vardy, Mahrez in PFA Team of the Year

    Eight players from Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur have been included in the Professional Footballers’ Association Premier League Team of the Year.

    Jamie Vardy is one of the four players picked from league leaders Leicester, while Premier League top scorer, Harry Kane will lead three other Spurs players into the team, the BBC reports.

    Arsenal midfielder, Mesut Ozil, a PFA Player of the Year nominee, missed out of the team.

    The PFA had planned to reveal the team at its annual awards ceremony on Sunday but said it was forced to publish early because the details were leaked.

    It blamed a member of the public for choosing “to deliberately leak our representative teams from the official brochure of the awards evening.”

    The players’ representative body added: “As a matter of urgency, we are seeking a detailed explanation from the brochure printers as to how they were able to secure a copy of the publication.”

    Kane has scored 24 league goals this season for Tottenham, who lies five points behind Leicester with four games remaining.

    As well as Vardy, Wes Morgan, N’Golo Kante and Riyad Mahrez are included from Leicester, while Toby Alderweireld, Danny Rose and Dele Alli join Kane from Tottenham.

    Manchester United goalkeeper, David de Gea, Arsenal full-back Hector Bellerin and West Ham’s Dimitri Payet make up the rest of the team.