The sporting director of Lyon Juninho has confirmed that the club’s left-winger, Memphis Depay, has agreed terms with FC Barcelona which means that he could be one of the football stars that could seal a transfer deal today, October 5 (transfer deadline day).
The summer transfer window is closing in most leagues in Europe and FC Barcelona has been linked with Memphis since August. There have been a series of back and forth which seems to have been settled according to Lyon’s sporting director.
“He is in the last year of his contract. He has agreed with Barca. Maybe he will leave on Monday, but nothing is certain,” Juninho told Telefoot on Sunday, less than a day to the close of the transfer window.
“He’s most likely to leave, but if he stays I hope he will help us win the matches.”
A proved that the 26-year-old Netherlands left-winger is on his way out of the club is that he was left out of Lyon’s starting eleven when the club faced Marseille on Sunday. The matched ended 1-1.
The fact that he didn’t start the match shown that Lyon’s manager Rudi Garcia is already planning life without Memphis Depay at the French Ligue 1 side. It is a deal the Dutchman will be looking forward to since Lyon will not feature in this season UEFA Champions League.
Why is Barcelona interested in Memphis Depay?
Memphis Depay has proven to be a very prolific goalscorer since he left Manchester United for Lyon in 2017 for just €16 million. Since then, the winger has kept his disappointing time at United behind him and has established himself as a very important player in Lyon.
Last season, he was so instrumental in helping Lyon to knock out Juventus in the UEFA Champions League round of 16 and pushed the club to the semi-finals of the competition. At the end of the season, the Netherlands forward scored 15 goals and provided 2 assists in 22 appearances in all competitions.
However, his effort was not enough to help Lyon to clinch a Champions League spot before the 2019-2020 French Ligue 1 season was canceled and Paris Saint Germain declared winners.
So far in the 2020-2021 French Ligue 1 season, Memphis Depay has scored 4 goals in 6 matches which means that if he does not move to Barcelona he could score more than he did last season.
Meanwhile, Barcelona’s interest in Depay could mean that the club’s forward, Ousmane Dembele could move to Manchester United or even Liverpool that have shown interest in his services. All these will be settled before the end of today.
