Bamba Dieng has been left out of Marseille’s UEFA Champions League squad after turning down a deadline day move to Premier League outfit Leeds United, via Get France Football News.
That squeaking sound in your ear is the noise of nearly 38,000 tiny violins. The Elland Road faithful won’t have much sympathy for a player who, after a remarkable deadline day, finds himself stuck in a bit of a quagmire of his own making.
Leeds agreed an £8 million fee with Marseille on Thursday, before green lighting personal terms with the Senegal international himself. But what are airports for if not mad dashes at the eleventh hour? Dieng, having spent much of the afternoon sat in a private jet waiting to head off across the Channel, suddenly came to the decision that his heart was with Nice instead; jilting Jesse Marsch at the altar.
Dieng failing his medical at Nice, then, felt like a fitting end to an already bizarre tale.
Bamba Dieng turned down Leeds United for Nice
Things could get worse for the 22-year-old forward before they get better. Dieng will not play a part in Marseille’s Champions League campaign. He’s been left out of Igor Tudor’s 20-man squad alongside fellow striker Cedric Bakambu, plus one-time Manchester City and Newcastle United target Isaak Toure.
Marseille, having lost 13 Champions League games in a row before defeating Olympiakos in December 2020, will be hoping to make a far better impression at Europe’s top table this time around. L’OM will go head-to-head with Tottenham Hotspur, Sporting Lisbon and Europa League holders Eintracht Frankfurt.
“You start to think it’s really easy. Then they say what’s happened. (And) it’s not easy anymore,” Leeds director Victor Orta tells Sky Sports after that deadline day deal to sign Bamba Dieng collapsed.
“I respect the decision of the player. I don’t know how his mind changed. Perhaps it’s the comfort zone; ‘I live in Marseille, I can go to Nice. It’s 20 kilometres from my house (instead) of starting a new life in a new country’.”
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