Alexis Sánchez Reports In France Forward Midfielder Marseille Best Performers Ligue 1

According to reports in France, the Chilean forward wants to see the club build a competitive squad and there are already four names on the shortlist. The status of Alexis Sánchez at Olympique de Marseille is a major talking point in France.

The Chilean has been one of the best performers in Ligue 1 this season but his existing deal with the club ends in just over a month. Despite his age the 34-year-old will not be short of offers from elsewhere and Marseille know that they need a convincing pitch if they are to keep him at the club.

“Alexis? He’s a leader,” Marseille midfielder Valentin Rongier told Téléfoot. “He doesn’t like to lose, and we’re very happy to have him with us. He doesn’t like to be tackled or criticized. He’s a bit of a complainer, but he’s a great professional.”

Marseille have already secured a spot in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League for next season but look likely to miss out on the top two automatic spots. This means that the club goes into the summer with more than a hint of uncertainty about their financial situation.

Marseille to bet big in the transfer market

Direct qualification to the Champions League would help convince Sanchez to stay, but without that certainty reports in France suggest that the club will try to show intent by bolstering the squad.

According to the French press, there are several high profile names on the shortlist.

Midfielder Denis Zakaria is thought to be a key target. The 26-year old has spent the season on loan to Chelsea from Juventus but has made just seven Premier League appearances. He also struggling to break into the Juventus side after his move from Borussia Monchengladbach in 2021 so is likely to be open to a move.

More ambitious is the interest in Raphael Guerreiro, who has been a regular starter for Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund this season. However the 29-year-old is out of contract at the end of this season and may be tempted by a return to France, the nation of his birth.

Marseille are also thought to be considering moves for two young players plying their trades in the French leagues. Paris Saint-Germain’s 18-year-old forward Mahamadou Diawara and Habib Diarra, a 19-year-old midfielder with Racing de Strasbourg, are in contention. Diarra in particular is a highly-rated prospect and has also drawn interest from a host of Premier League sides, including Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Facing a one-year transfer ban from FIFA, Marseille went to court Wednesday in a dispute with Watford over the 2020 signing of Senegal midfielder Pape Gueye.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport said Gueye — who faces a four-month playing ban by FIFA for breach of contract — was attending the start of a two-day hearing in Lausanne, Switzerland. No target date has been set for the verdict.

Marseille is second in the French league and on track to qualify for the Champions League next season, when the ban could take effect if the club loses the case.

Marseille also faces being blocked from registering new players for two consecutive transfer windows, and Gueye could be sidelined from all soccer for four months. The punishments were initially handed down by FIFA last year but were put on hold pending the appeal verdict.

Watford announced in April 2020 that it had made a pre-contract agreement with Gueye, a Paris-born France youth international then playing for Le Havre, on a five-year deal starting after that season.

Gueye, then 21, backed out of joining Watford and later signed with Marseille, which had finished runner-up in Ligue 1 to qualify for the following season’s Champions League.

Watford filed a case claiming breach of contract at FIFA’s disputes resolution chamber, which found in the club’s favor and imposed the bans on Marseille and Gueye. Marseille was reportedly ordered to pay Watford 2.5 million euros ($2.6 million).

Watford announced the ruling in January 2022 while Gueye was with Senegal at the African Cup of Nations in Cameroon. He helped Senegal win that tournament, and played in three of the country’s games at the World Cup in Qatar.

The CAS case combines three separate appeals, filed by each of the clubs and the player.

Gueye has since been loaned out by Marseille to play for Sevilla for the rest of the season, although was not included in the Spanish team’s squad list for the Europa League. Six-time champion Sevilla hosts Fenerbahce on Thursday in the round of 16.

Alexis Sanchez is ageing like a fine wine in the Mediterranean sunset

The endlessly boring discourse surrounding Ligue 1 being a ‘farmer’s league’ consistently distracts from the likes of Marseille and other sides when they do put together an impressive domestic campaign, which is exactly what Igor Tudor’s side have done this year.

In a division where Paris Saint-Germain manage to keep the top prize hostage for the majority of the time thanks to an endless cash flow provided by an oil state, even the sniff of being in contention for the Ligue 1 crown is enough for the likes of Marseille to be proud of.

They’re not settling for that, though, and neither is talisman Alexis Sanchez on his European revenge tour.

Sanchez netted his 17th goal of the season in all competitions to fire Marseille to a comeback victory over Auxerre.

On a weekend where PSG dropped points in a dramatic encounter against Lorient, the Sunday evening win for Les Phoceens puts them within five points of the defending champions, making for a more interesting end to the Ligue 1 season than Christophe Galtier’s side would’ve hoped for.

It’s been quite the rollercoaster ride for the Chilean, who very quickly went from Arsenal gunman to failed piano player and then Serie A misfit all in the space of a few seasons. Humbling, to say the least.

Especially for a player of his calibre. Because when Sanchez is on it, he’s absolutely electric. The problem is that he looked to have lost all that for good after his move to Manchester United, where it all very quickly went pear-shaped – if it was any shape other than that in the first place.

Quietly, though, Sanchez has reinvented himself on the Mediterranean coast, with unfortunately very little made of those efforts. That’s where we step in, though.

It’s time to give the 34-year-old his flowers. Once looking done, dusted and ready for a swansong in the MLS, he now leads the line for an exciting side that is pushing oil-rich PSG to the very limit, against the odds and against everyone’s belief.

“I’m happy and content in Marseille, I love the fans,” He said, when asked about extending his current deal beyond June.

And if he can contribute to somehow toppling the beast in red and blue currently atop the table before the season ends, we’re sure the supporters would do anything to keep him around.

He doesn’t even want to entertain the idea of falling at the final hurdle, though. There’s that winning mentality coming back out to play. Big club pedigree. All the cliches you hear the pundits spout.

“We need to believe we can get the title, I believe we can do it. We need to have hope and stay united as a team,” the Chile international said.

That’s fighting talk from a man with a point to prove. And perhaps it’s exactly that.

Winning the Ligue 1 title isn’t a want for Sanchez, it’s a need. A way to complete the comeback story in a deserving fashion, sealing his time in France with the perfect kiss and righting the wrongs of his previous missteps in England and Italy.

He’s the experienced head in a side carefully blended between young and old. The killer finisher operating off the flank. And it’s been joyous watching him rediscover his best form again.

Sure, he lifted a Serie A and a Coppa Italia with Inter, but he wasn’t the one leading the charge. It’s different this time, though.

Sanchez is affecting games, firing his team to glory and dragging the rest of them up with him when it matters. The spark is back and it’s incredibly evident when watching him strut his stuff.

He’s already achieved the fourth-highest scoring season in his career and can improve on that before 2022-23 comes to an end. And undoubtedly he will.

Everything we loved about the Chilean appears to be back, from his splash of pace over short distances, his shrewd positioning off the shoulder and his ability to find the back of the net from any angle he’s presented with.

If it’s not meant to be and PSG do keep their hands on France’s top prize, then so be it. But that won’t damage the individual season that Sanchez has produced for Marseille and the lengths he has gone to, in order to enjoy the late-career resurgence he so deserved.

A wonderous footballer at his best for Barcelona and Arsenal, it’s fitting that he bows out from the very top in a similarly glowing style.