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Simply 50 nautical miles will separate Mason Greenwood and England on a weekend when soccer’s most controversial ahead could already be considering of house.

journey the size of France to Le Havre to doubtlessly seal a Champions League place after a marketing campaign which, on paper, has been a hit for Greenwood.

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The most recent Opta rankings record him as Europe’s fifth simplest participant – slightly below Cole Palmer – and a nineteenth league purpose on Saturday evening would equal Didier Drogba’s debut season tally of strikes.

But life in France’s oldest port metropolis has not supplied the idyllic escapism Greenwood might need envisaged when he signed final summer season. Criticism of his work-rate led to a imploring Greenwood and his fellow striker Luis Henrique to “get a transfer on.”

Type has improved since an unconventional group boot camp in Rome, however, amid hypothesis he’s unsettled, a number of near his membership scenario settle for {that a} switch inside the subsequent two home windows is “doable”.

Greenwood is Ligue 1’s second-top goalscorer with 18 objectives – Getty Photographs/Miguel Medina

The best subsequent transfer could be to stay abroad. The Saudi Professional League has been monitoring Greenwood’s progress for months, though the most recent info from senior figures in Riyadh counsel their main golf equipment are full and a few “shuffling” could be required to accommodate the 23-year-old.

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Serie A or a return to La Liga have additionally been touted as essentially the most pure subsequent stage within the Greenwood rebuild, though tentative curiosity from Barcelona seems to have pale since a mid-season dip in kind.

However those that know Greenwood greatest now speculate a rising curiosity from Premier League golf equipment. As , these with an understanding of his scenario say he’s additionally pining for a return to his native north of England.

Enormous roadblocks nonetheless stand in the best way of such a homecoming, with campaigners insisting there may be no redemption following the that had been made in opposition to him, and by the Crown Prosecution Service in 2023.

There’s additionally a distinction of opinion amongst mates of Greenwood over whether or not he feels prepared. When he with a mortgage spell at Getafe, he privately dominated out taking a step down in English soccer when leaving United.

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That place may now be examined, nonetheless, with sources in France more and more satisfied that at the least two Premier League groups could also be weighing up an strategy. Even when he did come house, nonetheless, there is no such thing as a probability now of him catching Thomas Tuchel’s eye and including to his solitary England cap. In March the FA confirmed that the striker had switched his eligibility to Steve McClaren’s Jamaica.

Rehabilitated household man

English groups know the well being warnings, having been burned from the furore that surrounded them when , a considerably much less gifted participant, returned to the sport after his rape conviction was quashed.

However the temper round him could also be altering. Since United’s assertion in 2023 that “Mason didn’t commit the offences in respect of which he was initially charged”, there have been consecutive Christmases again house within the UK – and mates say he’s a household man now, a father of two with Harriet Robson.

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“Being a dad modified every little thing,” he wrote in an Instagram message to her on Mom’s Day. “Nevertheless it’s watching you be a mum that’s taught me most. Robust, loving, and all the time in my nook.”

At Marseille, a household focus has helped head coach Roberto De Zerbi preserve Greenwood on a good leash, moulding him as a super successor to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

De Zerbi has at occasions described Greenwood as like a son, however there was robust love too, not least the unconventional resolution to maneuver your entire squad away to Italy just lately to resume their deal with Champions League qualification.

The previous Brighton head coach needed to deny claims that the transfer was designed to revive concord within the camp. Previous to the journey, the Italian had questioned Greenwood’s utility after a tactical change that led to Marseille’s full-backs being repeatedly uncovered.

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In March De Zerbi dropped the Englishman for back-to-back fixtures – together with Le Classique in opposition to fierce rivals Paris St-Germain – figuring out that he was “not in the correct bodily situation to play”.

Marseille head coach Roberto De Zerbi has adopted a tough-love strategy with Greenwood – Getty Photographs/Jean Catuffe

The membership dismissed claims in L’Équipe that Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Adrien Rabiot had requested Greenwood be dropped after a spell of poor kind.

However outcomes have improved once more because the squad’s reboot at Rome’s Hilton Cavalieri Waldorf Astoria lodge, some 500 miles away from Marseille. De Zerbi and a delegation of gamers even frolicked paying their respects on the Vatican after the dying of Pope Francis.

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“I’ve all the time finished issues in another way,” De Zerbi says of the keep. “When somebody has concepts, you need to comply with them, no matter what others assume. We went to Rome as a result of we couldn’t discover wherever in Cannes, Saint-Tropez or Montpellier. So we may focus. Over the past 10 years, OM has solely certified for the Champions League 3 times. I’m making an attempt to remain centered.”

For Greenwood, an escape from the tough mid-season evaluations of his performances seems to have helped. He and the group have rallied since a harmful 3-0 defeat by Monaco which led native publication Le Phocéen to provide Greenwood a 2.5 score out of 10. “It was a ghostly match for the previous Mancunian, who introduced virtually nothing offensively to the Louis-II,” the outlet mentioned.

The fanatical Marseille supporters fete their star gamers like no different membership in Ligue 1, however Greenwood has generated nothing like the degrees of affection that had been lavished on Chris Waddle, the England worldwide who spent three profitable seasons there after transferring from Spurs in 1989.

“The season of Mason Greenwood is a paradox,” says Aryles, a Marseille fan and one of many lead hosts of the Massilia Zone podcast. “Statistically, he has been for certain one of the best participant of Marseille. He has the identical statistics as [Didier] Drogba in 2004, the best striker of OM this century. However, he has proven some difficulties in how he contributes to the collective plan of Roberto De Zerbi.

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“He’s a controversial individual, for certain. I’d say 15 per cent of followers that had been actually against his signing due to the case. On the finish of the season, if he leaves, I don’t know if individuals will keep in mind Greenwood in 20 years and say: ‘Oh, he was a tremendous participant.’”

Greenwood acquired off to a flying begin at Marseille however he has not fairly loved the ‘unconditional love’ described by l’Équipe again in August

There isn’t a suggestion, nonetheless, that Marseille have any regrets about signing him. Membership president Pablo Longoria mentioned he “checked out all the knowledge” when finishing a £26.6m cope with United – regardless of the native mayor branding the deal “not acceptable”. His deal runs till 2029, and , it would require a a lot heftier price to prise the 23-year-old away this summer season.

Greenwood, in the meantime, is seen as an introverted, indiscernible determine by those that cowl Marseille video games. It was some shock that he stopped to speak to reporters after Marseille’s 1-1 draw with Lille final weekend. The interview got here simply hours after The Solar quoted a supply saying Greenwood’s preliminary “love” for dwelling on the Mediterranean coast was now carrying off.

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However there have been no questions on his future as Greenwood, talking completely in English, was as a substitute requested whether or not he was disillusioned to overlook out on being nominated for gamers’ participant of the season award after a marketing campaign through which solely Ousmane Dembélé has bettered his Ligue 1 purpose tally.

“I’m probably not bothered about that,” he mentioned. “The one factor that bothers me in the meanwhile is getting Marseille to the Champions League.”

Whether or not or not he’ll nonetheless be carrying Marseille’s colors in Europe’s premier membership competitors subsequent season, nonetheless, stays to be seen.