OM Tried to Sign Da Cunha but Como's Price Was Too High

Olympique de Marseille did attempt to sign Lucas Da Cunha, but Como’s financial demands put an end to the pursuit. It was Medhi Benatia, former sporting director of the Marseille club, who shed light on this transfer failure.

« We tracked him for a year and a half. We discussed it, we tried to get him out of Como in the winter transfer window, but it was too expensive », Benatia said. OM had therefore identified the midfielder’s potential very early on, when he was still largely unknown to the general public.

Formed at Stade Rennais, Da Cunha took a winding path before establishing himself in Italy: a spell at OGC Nice, then Lausanne Sports in Switzerland, then Clermont Foot, before joining Como in January 2023, when the Lombardy club was fighting for survival in Serie B. The rest is history: Como climbed to Serie A, and Da Cunha with them.

At 25, the Portuguese-born player is now earning his first call-ups to the France national team since Zinédine Zidane took over as head coach. His second cap, on Friday night, proved less convincing than his first against Belgium. Da Cunha was responsible for a turnover that led to Italy’s equalizer.

Zidane, however, chose to downplay the incident. « I’m keeping everything else. A turnover is part of the game. That’s how the opponent can put you in difficulty, but it’s not the most important thing. The most important thing is what I saw from my players », the coach said.