Published Saturday January 25, 2025 at 4:00 p.m. In: OL.
By Claude Dautel
One more departure is looming for Olympique Lyonnais since Saïd Benrahma is close to reaching an agreement with a Saudi D2 club.
Concerning Saïd Benrahma, the question now is whether he will have finally spent a year at OL or whether he will leave the Rhone club a little before the first anniversary of his chaotic transfer from West Ham. But everything indicates that the Algerian international is indeed leaving Lyon to join the Saudi Arabian championship. Not the Saudi Pro League, but the Saudi D2 and more precisely the NEOM SC club, whose resources are colossal and which will likely rise to the elite of Saudi football. This Saturday, Santi Aouna reveals that Saïd Benrahma has started negotiations on the conditions of a possible future contract with NEOM SC, all this with the agreement of John Textor, who will not refuse a big check in order to fill a little more the coffers of Olympique Lyonnais.
Saïd Benrahma and OL, it smells like the end
This season, the 29-year-old Algerian striker has still played 22 matches with OL, scoring three goals and providing six assists. But as our colleague from Foot Mercato points out, Malick Fofana obviously pushed Saïd Benrahma into the shadows and the latter understood that even if he is under contract until 2027 with Olympique Lyonnais, his future is no longer at all assured in Pierre Sage's eleven. The striker must now finalize the details of his contract with the Saudi team and then OL and NEOM SC must agree on the amount of a transfer, but a priori this should be finalized very quickly and well before the closing of the winter transfer window on February 3.
