No reinforcement at the end of a disappointing transfer window for Paris Saint-Germain (PSG). The arrival on loan of Moroccan Chelsea player Hakim Ziyech to PSG was rejected on Wednesday by the Professional Football League (LFP) due to a procedural problem. The 29-year-old’s contract was sent too late on Tuesday evening and the Parisian club saw its appeal rejected by the LFP the day after the last day of the winter transfer window. PSG, which blames Chelsea, therefore closes its transfer market without any recruits.
Ligue 1 clubs were indeed required to send the contracts at 11 p.m. Tuesday evening to the LFP services, which gave them an extra hour to register these changes in the software governing international transfers (FIFA TMS). Asked by Agence France-Presse, neither the Professional Football League nor Paris Saint-Germain spoke about this improbable imbroglio.
Administrative errors
According to internal sources cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP) and several media, everything was tied up with Ziyech: the semi-finalist winger of the last World Cup was in Paris on Tuesday, he had successfully passed his medical examination and the two clubs agreed to a loan without an option to buy. This arrival of a renowned player would have saved the PSG transfer window, so far sluggish.
But according to two sources with knowledge of the file, the Chelsea club made several errors in sending PSG the administrative documents necessary for the registration of the contract… And the closing time was missed. The Parisian club nevertheless tried to plead its case by filing an appeal with the League, but the latter’s legal committee, meeting on Wednesday morning, rejected it. According to several media, she also rejected the departure on loan of the young Parisian Ismaël Gharbi, who was to take the direction of Nice.
Two weeks before the round of 16 first leg of the Champions League against Bayern Munich and while its results are slipping, PSG ends the transfer window empty-handed. He only let his number two goalkeeper Keylor Navas to Nottingham Forest (loan) and his Spanish winger Pablo Sarabia to Wolverhampton (transfer) leave, among the first team players.
Record transfer for OM
The Parisian imbroglio, in the middle of the night, closed a lively day on the transfer window in Ligue 1. In Marseille, the management ended the evening with a smile: Olympique de Marseille (OM) doubled the English clubs to attract Vitinha (Braga), who could become the biggest transfer in its history.
The young 22-year-old striker has signed up for four and a half years against a total amount of up to 32 million euros (25 million and 7 million bonuses), to which could be added 10% of a future transfer, according to the Portuguese club. Either an operation that would exceed the biggest recruitment ever made by OM, namely the return of Dimitri Payet in 2017 (30 million euros).
OM, which has long been looking for a “great striker”, has high hopes for Vitinha, who has scored thirteen goals and five assists in twenty-seven games this season. This arrival concludes a spectacular winter recruitment after the Ukrainian Ruslan Malinovskyi and the Moroccan revelation of the 2022 World Cup Azzedine Ounahi.