Playing today under the colors of Umm Salal SC in Qatar, Andy Delort looks back on his failure to come to Olympique de Marseille.
The striker was in contact with OM in the summer of 2021, his last year at MHSC. But the transfer did not happen and Delort joined OGC Nice, with a little resentment in his baggage… In comments provided to Colinterview, Andy Delort revealed how Longoria blocked his transfer to OM while the coach at the time, Jorge Sampaoli, wanted his signature. “Why my transfer to OM fair? I don’t know everything. I had Sampaoli on the phone who called me all the time. We spoke on the phone for 2 hours. Even he said at a press conference that he wanted a 9, it was Andy Delort. And for me, it was almost done. Afterwards, Longoria made the decision not to take me because he felt that he was not going to sell me afterwards because I was 30 years old. There are a lot of clubs who see how much they will buy from you, how much they will sell you. My contract was completed, Sampaoli was ok,” he relates.
“OM was starting to tickle me, it had to be done with Marseille. Things had progressed quite well with Marseille and Laurent Nicollin knew that I had a weakness for Marseille. In the end, they didn’t sell a player, it couldn’t be done and afterwards I signed for Nice. Longoria said towards the end of the transfer window to my agent: ‘If we sell Caleta-Car, we sign Andy’. In the end, Caleta-Car did not leave,” says the Algerian international again.
