As Olympique de Marseille prepares to play the most important meeting of its summer period against Panathinaïkós on the lawn of the Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium, as part of the 3rd qualifying round for the Champions League, the management of OM, carried by the duo Pablo Longoria – Javier Ribalta, continue to work in the submarine to perfect the Marseille workforce before the official resumption of the championships. Arrived in Bouches-du-Rhône during the last winter transfer window, the Ukrainian international, Ruslan Malinovskyi (30 years old) is already on the start, at a time when the Marseille offensive lines have been largely reinforced by the arrivals by Iliman Ndiaye, Ismaïla Sarr and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. But above all, the new coach of the Phocaeans, Marcelino does not have a system in which the Ukrainian can find himself and maximize his qualities, especially since he is originally a profile for the ideas of Igor Tudor.
As we revealed to you last week, a club is in pole position to welcome the native of Zhytomyr into its ranks. Torino, which finished in 10th position last season in Serie A, has been dreaming for several days of forming an attacking midfield duo made up of Croatian international Nikola Vlašić and former Atalanta player Ruslan Malinovskyi . Now that the formalization of Vlašić’s return has been announced in Turin, the Piedmontese club are focusing exclusively on the search for their second trequartista midfielder to line up alongside the Croatian. According to our information, coach Ivan Juric continues to make Malinovskyi his top priority and the Turin management intends to respect the wishes of his tactician.
Agreement between player and Torino
Negotiations have therefore accelerated in recent hours between Turin and Marseille. Indeed, according to our indiscretions, a total agreement has been found between Ruslan Malinovskyi and Torino. The player has already spoken with coach Ivan Juric who convinced him to join the Granata. A choice that seems logical on paper since the 30-year-old midfielder wants, for personal reasons, absolutely to return to Italy and drive back the lawns of Serie A. The green light had already been given to the Turin club from the start of the discussions but from real concrete agreements have been made between the Italians and Malinovskyi, to the point where the player would push with OM to facilitate his departure for Piedmont. Besiktas remain in the race, although well outdistanced by Torino. Today, confidence reigns in Piedmont, especially as the Turinese should receive an additional 8 million euros in the transaction with Atalanta involving the exchange between Wilfried Singo and Brandon Soppy.
Now all that’s missing is a final agreement between OM and Torino to close the file. If the two clubs have spoken again in recent hours, no proposal has yet been accepted. Indeed, according to our information, the Italian club would still hesitate on the form of the transaction. The loan with a purchase option set at around 10 million euros was the first track favored by Torino to date, but President Urbano Cairo and sporting director Davide Vagnati are said to be reflecting this week on the economic repercussions that a transfer could have. dry. Torino are convinced that Ruslan Malinovskyi represents the perfect piece alongside Nikola Vlašić in Juric’s 3-4-2-1 system, similar to the philosophy of Gian Piero Gasperini and Igor Tudor. The objective is to respect the desires of the Croatian coach to hope to grab a spot in the Europa League and thus facilitate negotiations for an extension of the coach’s contract.
