The Lyon forward (26 years old), with a contract until 2021, is an express request from Koeman to be Barça's '9
According to the Dutch newspaper Telegraaf , FC Barcelona and Olympique Lyon have reached an agreement for the transfer of Memphis Depay for 25 million fixed euros plus five in variables. According to the same newspaper, the 26-year-old striker of the 'oranje' team would arrive at the end of this week in Barcelona to be presented as a new Barça player. " Memphis is going to play alongside Messi, " says the aforementioned newspaper in its information exhaustively.
Depay is an express request from Ronald Koeman to occupy the position of '9' at the Camp Nou after the coach informed Luis Suárez that he does not have him, although the Uruguayan has not solved his situation at Can Barça and his departure continues stranded.
With a contract until 2021, Depay is very excited about the option of joining his compatriot Frenkie de Jong in Barcelona and fulfilling the expectations of Koeman , who has bet heavily on him. Although in his early days at PSV Eindhoven he was a left winger as a right-handed man, in Lyon he has established himself as a striker, displaying great instinct against the rival frame and strong pressure and intensity.
Ten days ago , Mundo Deportivo already reported that Depay had overtaken Lautaro in the race for being the new center forward of Barça in the face of the enormous economic difficulties that the signing of the Argentine from Inter Milan entailed . Precisely the continuity of the ' Toro ' in San Siro has been confirmed this Monday by Beto Yaqué , one of its agents, after meeting with leaders of the 'Nerazzurri' club.
Depay was top scorer for the Eredivisie in the 2014-15 season with 22 goals under Phillip Cocu at PSV before joining Manchester United , which paid 35 million euros. His stage at Old Trafford , where he arrived at the wish of Louis van Gaal , did not meet expectations but in Lyon , as of January 2017, he returned to shine as in his beginnings in Eindhoven although already in the axis of the attack, also occupied with Koeman in the selection of the Netherlands Netherlandsfrom September 2018 to November 2019, the date of the last duel of the Wembley hero on the bench of his country before the confinement of last March.
Last season he started as a nine-target shot in 13 Ligue 1 games until a serious cruciate ligament injury, from which he is fully recovered, left him in dry dock for six months.
Rudi Garcia has already opened the door
Barça's interest in Depay a year after being released has already invited pessimism in Lyon , where coach Rudi Garcia publicly confessed that an offer would be irrefutable and opened the door for him . "If Depay can go to a club that aspires to the Champions League , I myself will drive him," said the semi-finalist's coach at the last European Cup after getting rid of Manchester City in the quarterfinals against all odds.
For his part, the OL president since 1987, Jean-Michael Aulas , was begged after the criticism generated in 2016 by the sale of Samuel Umtiti to Barça for 25 'kilos'. "What nonsense is this defeatist message ... Olympique de Lyon has the means to impose its strategy and we want to have a very good year," he said last week on the 'Telefoot' program of the TF1 channel when asked about a possible exit of Depay . However, waiting to see if what was announced by Telegraaf , the offer from Barça and the will of the forward to call up at the Camp Nou materializeit seems that they will leave no other way out than a transfer.
If you like my article then
Pls like.....comment....subscribe...