Clauss accuses Benatia of orchestrating his forced departure from Marseille in 2024

Jonathan Clauss has publicly accused Medhi Benatia, former sporting advisor at Olympique de Marseille, of orchestrating his departure from the club in summer 2024, a year and a half after the events.

The right-back, sold to OGC Nice for €5 million in June 2024, claims everything changed after a private conversation with Benatia in December 2023. “I tell him: ‘Listen Medhi, I genuinely think that with Gattuso, we won’t make it. We’re not working the right way’,” he recounted. Three days later, according to him, rumors about an alleged injury simulation began circulating against him.

Clauss sees this as a deliberate response to his stance against Italian manager Gennaro Gattuso, who was then in charge of Marseille between September 2023 and February 2024. “They wanted to commit to him long-term. They saw it as an affront. And since they couldn’t get rid of Gattuso, they got rid of Jo’…,” he said bitterly.

The 33-year-old player also denounces pressure exerted behind the scenes to force him to leave. “I took some under-the-radar pressure, like: ‘Who do you think you are? You’re going to have to leave…’,” he says, noting he never had a direct discussion with Roberto De Zerbi, Gattuso’s successor, despite the Italian coach’s apparent respect for him.

Clauss insists his image was unjustly tarnished. “My image was damaged with people when everything was false. But because you’re at Marseille, you don’t have the right to respond. That’s not the case at all. It’s just that the truth needs to be told. I didn’t want to leave.” Captain Valentin Rongier reportedly supported him in the dressing room, though it changed nothing.

Benatia, appointed director of football at Marseille in January 2025, has not publicly responded to these accusations.