Olivier Létang, president of Lille, once again strongly criticized the management of his predecessor Gérard Lopez, Tuesday on La Chaine L’Equipe. He thus estimated that his club had only received seven million euros from the transfer of Victor Osimhen, sold to Naples in 2020.
A new strong tackle. Olivier Létang once again turned on Gérard Lopez, his predecessor as president of Lille, Tuesday on La Chaine L’Equipe. The current boss of Losc, who arrived at the post in December 2020 after the departure of Lopez who was pushed out by the shareholder, still does not understand how the authorities of French football authorized him to take over Bordeaux, in 2021, which he plunged into National 2 after the club’s administrative demotion last summer.
“Seven million euros in the club’s coffers” on a sale at 70
“It’s nothing personal but given my convictions and my vision of sport, it’s incomprehensible that he was allowed to take over another club, a club like the Girondins de Bordeaux.” He explains that he held a speech that called him after Lopez’s nomination. “I was called but unfortunately for the Girondins de Bordeaux, I told them: ‘I can describe to you today what will happen in two years.'”
The Lille president illustrates the management gaps by being questioned about Osimhen’s transfer to Naples in the summer of 2020, a few months before his arrival, for an amount estimated at around 70 million euros.
“The sale of Osimhen was not 68 because there were four players worth 20 million euros in the balance, whose value was zero in fact,” he explains. “If we add up: purchase of the player, all the intermediaries, the capital gains, the commissions, the sale, the players who arrived, there are around seven million euros in the club’s coffers. Losc earned a lot more money with Carlos Baleba (sold for nearly 30 million euros to Brighton in 2023, Editor’s note), Amadou Onana (40 million to Everton in 2022), Sven Botman (37 at Newcastle in 2022) or Leny Yoro (60 at Manchester United in 2024) a lot On the players we sold, there were no more commissions, retro-commissions or intermediaries. club coffers.”
