Italian media claims agreement between Paris Saint-Germain and Udinese over the sale of Mehdi Benatia
According to Italian sports news agency Sport Mediaset, Ligue 1 giants Paris Saint-Germain have reached an agreement with Italian Serie A side http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Udinese-Calcio-c40789 over the transfer of highly-rated central defender Mehdi Benatia.
The 24-year-old midfielder was linked with a move to the Parc des Princes in the summer transfer window. However, the Moroccan international ruled out any possibility of returning to French football by saying, “PSG approached me, but it will not happen.”
Recently acquired by the Qataris, the capital club is now exploring many avenues to strengthen the defence. Benatia is one of those avenues that the club is looking at. Despite his past as an http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Olympique-de-Marseille-c40127 player, a move to Paris was never an issue
for the youngster.
“Of course a return to http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/France-c2899 would be good for me and my family. With the arrival of Qataris, there is a great project at the club as the owners are highly motivated to make Paris a great club. but discussions with PSG have not passed the stage of interest,”
Benatia had said in July.
However, it seems that things have taken a whole new direction. Sport Mediaset claims that Paris Saint-Germain and Udinese have reached an agreement on a transfer fee of 15 million Euros for the central defender in the upcoming winter transfer window.
Under the radar of several European clubs including Manchester United (who oversaw the last game between http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Napoli-c40003 and Udinese), Benatia has built a solid reputation in the Italian Serie A which has lead to such interest from Paris Saint-Germain.
Although PSG’s interest seems to be genuine, there are a few issues that need to be looked at first. PSG already have five central defenders including summer signings http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Zoumana-Camara-c38101 and
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Sylvain-Armand-c34429 have extended their contracts with Les Parisiens which means that in order to make way for Benatia, a defender will have to be sold or one of the five defenders would be forced to a peripheral role at the club.
Stacking up defenders at the moment would not be a good thing for the morale of the players so a better decision regarding Benatia would be to agree terms with his current club and him and then bring him to the club after the current season ends.
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