“He is behaving fantastically”: Marseille president defends controversial signing of Mason Greenwood | OneFootball

Marseille president Pablo Longoria has issued a passionate defence of his side’s signing of former Manchester United forward Mason Greenwood.

Greenwood permanently left United in the summer to join Marseille in a deal worth £26.6m.

The Carrington academy graduate put pen to paper on a deal running until 2029. The season before, Greenwood spent time out on loan in Spain with Sevilla.

This is after serious charges against him including attempted rape and assault were dropped in February 2023 by the Crown Prosecution Services, who cited the withdrawal of material witnesses from the case.

Marseille’s acquisition of Greenwood led to the Ligue 1 club facing a lot of backlash and criticism, with the local mayor describing the move as “not acceptable.”

However, this seemingly had little to no effect on the ex-United star, who has taken to life in France like a duck to water. He has enjoyed a prolific start to his Marseille career, scoring an impressive five goals and three games. His exploits earned him the club’s Player of the Month award.

While attending the Thinking Football Summit, Longoria was asked whether he harbours any regrets regarding signing Greenwood.

The Marseille presented responded [via Goal], “The comments of the mayor reinforce what we did, [they did] not have all the information.”

“We took the decision internally. OK, there was some opposition, that was objective, but at the same time that gave us power to maybe not investigate, because I am not a judge, but to use all the information to take the best decision, which I think we did.

“In our very first conversation with the coach [Roberto de Zerbi] we mentioned Mason’s name.”

“The coach knew Mason from the past and it was a very quick conversation at the start between all of us because we believe in the talent of Mason.”

“There were a lot of conversations between all of us in the weeks leading up to his move. He is behaving fantastically with us and we are very happy to have him playing in our team.”

England interim boss Lee Carsley recently revealed that Greenwood is not under consideration to play for the Three Lions.

When asked about this, Longoria remarked, “I don’t want to answer that kind of question out of respect to everybody.”

“I prefer to talk about what Mason is doing in France and Marseille and we are very happy with the kind of performances that he is doing during the first weeks as well.”

Marseille are currently second in Ligue 1, just two points behind table leaders Paris Saint-Germain.

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