Eric Bailly Marseille loan: Fee, purchase option and contract details revealed
Robin Bairner
- Updated: 25 Aug 2022 12:08 BST
- 3 min read
Marseille announced on Wednesday that they have signed Manchester United centre-back Eric Bailly on loan.
Bailly has been a player that United have been seeking to offload throughout the summer, and particularly since signing Lisandro Martinez from Ajax.
The Ivory Coast international has departed on what is for the moment a temporary transfer, but it has weaved into the agreement the opportunity for Marseille to make the deal permanent.
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Bailly loan details
Indeed, RMC has revealed that Marseille will pay an upfront fee of €2 million to take Bailly for the course of the 2022/23 season, during which they will play Champions League football after finishing second in Ligue 1 last season.
Meanwhile, the purchase figure for Bailly has been set at €6m. This will be automatically triggered if one of two conditions are agreed. Firstly, if Bailly plays 50% of Marseille’s games, he will become their player on a permanent basis or if OM qualify for the Champions League next season by finishing in the top three in Ligue 1.
In the case that the 28-year-old remains with Marseille, he will be presented with a two-year deal by the Stade Velodrome club, keeping him in the south of France until 2025.
The prospects of Bailly triggering at least one of these levers look to be good. Although he played only seven times for Man Utd last season, this was largely because he was pinned to the bench at Old Trafford. He has had injury problems in the past, but there were few issues on that front last season.
Meanwhile, Marseille have made a promising start to the season, picking up seven points from a possible nine, and while they have yet to find their best level of form under new head coach Igor Tudor, the signs are that they will be in the mix for the Champions League spots come the end of the season.
Bailly, therefore, may well have played his last game for Man Utd.
