Newcastle United winger Florian Thauvin, who moved back to his old club Marseille at the start of this season for his second loan spell at the French club, has expressed his desire to make a permanent move to the Stade Velodrome in the summer in an interview with RMC Sport.
The 24-year-old was signed by Newcastle United in the summer of 2015. Despite putting up an impressive performance in his first start for the club in the second round of the League Cup that season, Thauvin was loaned back to Marseille in January 2015 until the end of the season. The French club re-signed Thauvin for a second loan spell at the start of the 2016-17 season and this time, the Magpies inserted a clause in the contract which gave Marseille the option to make the deal permanent.
Back in November, the Express reported that Marseille have agreed to pay Newcastle £9.8million to make the move permanent in the summer of 2017. According to www.online-betting.org predictions, the Frenchman went on to impress for the Ligue 1 club and even captained them for the first time in a Coupe de France match in January.
In an interview with RMC Sport, Thauvin has now confirmed that he will join Marseille permanently this summer. He said, “It was a loan with an automatic purchase. After three games I belonged to Marseille so it was almost a transfer.
“No doubt, I’ll be at Marseille next season.”
From Newcastle’s perspective, they will be facing a loss of nearly £2million on this transfer if the figure reported by the Express is to be considered. Thauvin was signed for a fee of £12million, according to a report by the BBC, from Marseille in 2015, and the French club are now signing back a more experienced footballer for a cheaper price.