French giants Olympique de Marseille have reportedly ruled out a summer move for out-of-favour Barcelona defender Clement Lenglet this summer.
According to an exclusive report from RMC Sport, Ligue 1 heavyweights Olympique de Marseille have decided against pursuing the signing of Barcelona outcast Clement Lenglet due to his wages.
Lenglet has been with Barcelona for four years, having signed him from fellow La Liga club Sevilla in the summer of 2018. The 27-year-old soon became a first-team regular at Camp Nou upon his arrival, displacing Samuel Umtiti as Gerard Pique’s defensive partner and enjoying a couple of promising seasons with the Catalan giants.
However, Lenglet’s form has nosedived over the past two seasons, with the defender also falling down the pecking order at Barcelona as a result. Indeed, the French international was behind Ronald Araujo, Pique and Eric Garcia in the order of preference at Camp Nou this past season.
And his standing will further decline as Barcelona are set to sign Andreas Christensen on a Bosman deal, while they are also pushing to land Jules Kounde from Sevilla as a priority. As a result, Barcelona are ready to part ways with Lenglet, while the defender himself is open to leaving the La Liga behemoths in search of regular game-time ahead of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar later this year.
A move to Marseille has been touted heavily recently, with the French club on the lookout for defensive reinforcements after seeing William Saliba return to Arsenal following a successful loan spell. In addition, fellow centre-back Duje Caleta-Car is also attracting widespread interest in the market, with clubs in the Premier League showing a lot of keenness to sign him up.
Should the Croatian end up departing, Marseille would be left thinly stretched in the centre-back department, which would be far from ideal ahead of the new season in which they will be competing in the UEFA Champions League as well.
Lenglet, to that end, had been touted as a target for Marseille. However, as per the report from RMC Sport, the 2021/22 Ligue 1 runners-up are not considering a swoop for the Barcelona defender as his wages are too steep for them. The 27-year-old Frenchman earns around €6 million per season at Camp Nou currently and that is beyond the means of Marseille.
So, the Ligue 1 outfit is seemingly out of contention to sign Lenglet, and the Frenchman must now look at other options on the table as he prepares to move on from Barcelona this summer.