Mehdi Benatia, Getty Images 03 December 2025, 11:48

During this year’s summer transfer campaign, French Marseille planned to make two big signings, inviting London Chelsea central defender Wesley Fofan and Belgian central midfielder Kevin De Bruyne, whose contract with English Manchester City has come to an end.

However, in the end, none of these transfers were implemented – Fofana said that he would focus on performances for the “blues”, and De Bruyne chose the Italian Napoli.

Marseille sporting director Mehdi Benatia spoke about these two negotiation processes in a recent interview.

“Among others, I also tried to invite Fofana from Chelsea. I asked him: ‘You’ve had a lot of injuries, wouldn’t he like to try to come back to play in Marseille at home?'” But it was all in vain.

There were also talks about Kevin De Bruyne, but when we started those talks, Napoli were already in an advanced position,” the Moroccan official said.

Marseille is currently third in Ligue 1, two points behind leaders Lance.