Currently 3 rd in Ligue 1, Rennes is on the verge of a very good success in this winter transfer window. The Breton club will formalize, the next few hours, the arrival of Steven Nzonzi. “Things are going very well. The finalization is imminent ”, confirms a person familiar with the matter. Under contract with AS Rome until 2022, the midfielder was in a real sporting impasse in Galatasaray, where he had been the subject of a loan in August 2019.
Thursday will prove to be a decisive day for the 31-year-old French world champion (14 caps), who is preparing to discover Ligue 1. Nzonzi, expected in Brittany this Friday to undergo the medical examination, agreement, from Sunday, with Olivier Létang's club. It then remained in Rennes and AS Rome to agree on the terms of the loan with option to purchase and in particular the assumption of the player's salary.
This financial equation was not the easiest to reconcile with regard to Nzonzi's emoluments, slightly higher than 3 million euros (excluding bonus). In the end, the two sides managed to come to an agreement. "It just remains to settle the duration of the loan: namely six or eighteen months", we learn from concordant sources.
Inflexible chelsea
Unless the trend has changed, Olivier Giroud has little hope of seeing his situation change favorably in the coming hours. As we revealed on Wednesday, the three-color striker is still blocked by Chelsea. If the latter had agreed to a contract of two and a half years with Inter Milan at the start of this winter transfer window, the London club has shown itself to be adamant.
The Blues have not found a replacement for the French and have therefore not granted a release to the former Montpellier, under contract until the end of the season. In the France team, this situation weakens his position as a leading holder, where he was to be number one like at Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup. If the best tricolor goalscorer in activity (39 goals) does not play more by June, the Blues staff will then be forced to get him out of the starting lineup.
In recent hours, Tottenham and Lazio Rome had come to the news before being chilled by the intransigence of Chelsea.