Marseille fans have railed against signing Mason Greenwood after his £27m move from Manchester United.
Greenwood has not played for United since being arrested in January 2022 and formally charged with attempted rape, assault occasioning bodily harm and controlling and coercive behaviour nine months later, accusations he has always denied.
All charges against Greenwood were dropped in February 2023, but audio which appears to show him abusing a woman and coercing her into sexual activity is still regularly shared on social media.
The 22-year-old spent last season on loan at Getafe, where he faced chants of “Die, Greenwood, die” from opposition fans.
Marseille fans are split over his signing, with both #GreenwoodNotWelcome and #GreenwoodWelcome trending on X over the past week.
The mayor of Marseille, Benoit Payan, also said on French radio station RMC: “I do not want my club to be covered in shame”. But Greenwood was greeted by hundreds of fans after flying into France on Wednesday evening.
Marseille has a reputation as a liberal, progressive club representing a multicultural city where residents recently danced into the night after a shock left-wing alliance election win.
Club president Pablo Longoria is similarly outspoken, with Marseille opening their training ground to female domestic abuse victims during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Aryles from Marseille multi-media outlet Massilia Zone tells i: “When you know about Marseille, the values of the club, the president who speaks about morality all the time, you can only be surprised.
“He spoke about morality after stadium violence, he’s spoken out against illegally streaming football, but there’s no morality for a footballer, just because he’s good. It’s embarrassing and as a fan you can’t do anything. They are not even listening to the mayor.”
One of Aryles’ colleagues asked 40 fans in Marseille this week to what they thought of signing Greenwood. All were against it.
“Welcoming the player to the airport is not a tradition here like in Turkey,” Aryles says.
“They did it for Alexis Sanchez two years ago, they did it for Iliman Ndiaye, a child of the city, and they did it for Greenwood. This is shocking. I was really ashamed.”
Particular condemnation is reserved for new boss Roberto De Zerbi, who called Greenwood “a world-class player” who he would “defend like my sons”, but also said “I don’t know his background.
“I’m not surprised [about De Zerbi’s response],” Aryles says.
“When someone says he’s crazy about football, all he thinks about is football, there’s no limit to his passion about football, this is good for being a coach but not good for human relationships.”
And Tomasz Piatek from English-language Marseille podcast OM Republic has gone a step further with his #ButsDeValeur (valuable goals) campaign, pledging to donate €5 to a domestic abuse charity for every goal Greenwood scores.
“It would be nice just to do a little bit to transform this into something good, that’s why I launched this initiative,” he tells i.
“I did it so I wouldn’t be so disgusted when I watch the games, but I also hope it will bring some money to organisations that need it.”
He had similar criticism for De Zerbi’s “cowardly response”, and explains: “I was stoked for the upcoming season, because we have new manager who is very exciting, but that’s been turned down.”
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/vwza7t0
Post a Comment