Steve Mandanda has flirted with Marseille, the club he left only this summer.
Steve Mandanda only joined Crystal Palace in the summer
Crystal Palace goalkeeper Steve Mandanda has said it would be a “great pleasure” to play for his former club Marseille again.
He made the comment while speaking to French radio station RMC.
“If I have to go back to France, it will be in Marseille and nowhere else,” said the shot-stopper, before adding he would greet a return “with great pleasure because I have an attachment to OM [Olympique de Marseille] which is enormous.”
However, he did go on to say that “there is nothing happening” and that “no discussion” had taken place regarding a potential return to the Stade Velodrome.
Mandanda has been a regular fixture in the France squad since making his debut in 2008, but has just 24 caps to his name in those nine years on account of the emergence of Tottenham stopper Hugo Lloris as the country’s number one over the same period.
Mandanda’s international team-mate and former club-mate Dimitri Payet has recently return to Marseille
Mandanda had spent nine seasons at Marseille before joining Palace on a free transfer in the summer but has had to endure an inauspicious start to his career in South London.
He failed to keep a clean sheet in nine league starts before suffering a knee injury in November that has kept him sidelined ever since.
With back-up goalie Wayne Hennessey proving to be a liability in his absence, Sam Allardyce will be glad when Mandanda is available for selection again.
As the French international has resumed training, that day could be this Saturday, when the Eagles host Middlesbrough in a relegation six-pointer.
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