El Boughlamy nearly Marseille-bound, PSG crashes the party and shakes everything up

Olympique Marseille believed it had its first summer signing in the bag: Montpellier midfielder Adam El Boughlamy, 18, captain of MHSC’s U19s, was set to sign a professional trainee contract with Marseille in the coming hours. PSG had other ideas.

With a preliminary agreement already reached between the Olympians and the player — who had already turned down approaches from Lyon, Strasbourg and Lorient — the capital club, freshly crowned French U19 champions, entered the fray, according to Foot Mercato. The Franco-Moroccan, free of any contract after completing his training at the Hérault club, is now in full deliberation. A decision is expected by the end of the week.

The news comes at the worst possible time for Olympique Marseille, which is going through a period of institutional and financial turbulence. Since Wednesday, the Phocaean club has had to manage a €10 million fine handed down by UEFA for breaches of commitments made four years ago as part of financial fair play. Added to this is a heavy debt liable to trigger sanctions from the National Management Control Authority (DNCG), while the club is in the midst of restructuring, both at board level and in its professional squad.

It is in this context that new sporting director Grégory Lorenzi is attempting to build his first transfer window. The loss of El Boughlamy to their Parisian rivals would constitute a symbolic as well as sporting setback for Marseille, forced to be resourceful with limited means.