Clearly, the Italian air was good for Mattéo Guendouzi. Arriving at Olympique de Marseille in July 2021, the French midfielder quickly became one of the darlings of the Orange Vélodrome under the orders of Jorge Sampaoli, before experiencing a different role – positioned to the right of the attacker – which did not help him express 100% of his abilities with Igor Tudor. With the induction of Marcelino last summer at the head of the first team, the native of Poissy understood that he was not in the new coach’s plans and therefore had to find a way out to glean playing time. It is on the other side of the Alps that the opportunity presents itself, with a loan with obligation to purchase (13 million euros + 5 in variables) to Lazio, fourth in Serie A l last year and qualified for the Champions League… unlike OM.
The debut of the 24-year-old midfielder is not unanimous among the residents of the Stadio Olimpico. If he offered interesting performances between the championship and the C1, the one who also wore the jersey of Arsenal and FC Lorient, his post-training club after Paris Saint-Germain, was qualified as“irreverent” speak Corriere dello Sport, which devotes an entire page to him to discuss his renewed form with the Biancocelesti. The French international with 7 caps only had to make do with appearances at the start of the season, with only one start until the end of September. But for six matches – including 5 appearances in the starting eleven, the neo-Laziale has been able to raise the bar and get rid of the frills that were criticized against him on the green rectangle. Enough to even relaunch his international career…
A first pre-convocation in Blue since… the World Cup
In his columns of this Thursday’s edition, the Corriere dello Sport appreciated the change in conduct of Mattéo Guendouzi, who “often makes gestures bordering on the football code”, as the transalpine daily explains. His coach, Maurizio Sarri, also congratulated the main player on his progress, but expects even more from him: “He is young and despite that he has good experience in important teams. But I think he has room for improvement if he finds order, linearity, cleanliness in his game, he can become an important player. Already preferred to Daichi Kamada or even Matias Vecino, the 24-year-old player is today an important element alongside the experienced and captain of the club from the Italian capital, Luis Alberto, who was full of praise. former Hake at the start of the financial year.
As for his integration, Mattéo Guendouzi seems to have adapted well to Italian football, helped by a year spent under the leadership of Igor Tudor, who spent no less than three seasons in Serie A. “I feel good here, I’m progressing a lot, we’ve been playing very well for a few months. If we continue like this we can beat a lot of teams, we have to stay focused on what we have to do to win. I’m here to win.”, declared number 8 of the Capitolini. Enough to tickle the attention of Didier Deschamps, who, again according to Corriere dello Sport, pre-summoned him for the next international break, a first since the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. With the winning return of Mattéo Guendouzi, Lazio hopes to collect their first trophy since the Italian Super Cup won in 2019.
