In an article dedicated to Matvey Safonov, who should be a starter for PSG/Girona, L'Equipe looks back at the Russian goalkeeper's transfer to Paris this summer and makes some interesting revelations about the process of his recruitment.
Unknown to the French public before the first rumors sending him to PSG at the end of May, Matvey Safonov was the Parisian club's first summer recruit. Perhaps the one that surprised the most, since the club paid nearly 20 million euros, bonuses included, for a goalkeeper who was supposedly intended to be Gianluigi Donnarumma's understudy.
But the Russian goalkeeper, who was a regular in Krasnodar and with the national team, quickly made it known that he was not coming to Paris to settle for a number 2 spot. “No one ever told me I was number 2. I came to Paris to fight. I want to play football. Even if they had told me I was number 2, I wouldn’t have listened to them. It’s up to me to give the best of myself. I don’t see myself as a number 2.”he confided to the Russian journalist Nobel Arustamyan at the end of June.
A comfortable salary for a number 2
After four Ligue 1 games, Safonov has not played a minute so far and his status as number 2 is confirmed, even if nothing is set in stone. He should also take advantage of Gianluigi Donnarumma's right thigh muscle discomfort to make his official debut with PSG this Wednesday in the Champions League against Girona. The opportunity for him to show that he can be a viable solution in the event of a drop in form from the Italian goalkeeper or an injury to the latter.
In today's edition, L'Equipe tells us that Safonov earns around 400,000 euros gross per month at PSG. This is half as much as Donnarumma (849,500 euros/month) and also less than what Keylor Navas earned last season (572,600 euros), but it remains a comfortable salary for a substitute.
Safonov's profile validated by Borja Alvarez
Even more interesting, L'Equipe looks back at the process that led to his recruitment this summer and explains that as always, Luis Campos proposed several names to Luis Enrique and his staff once the decision to recruit a new goalkeeper was made. And the Spanish coach of PSG would have thus let Borja Alvarez, his goalkeeping coach, validate the final decision.
This obviously does not mean that Luis Enrique did not want Safonov or is not a fan of his profile, but rather that the Russian was not necessarily a player specifically requested by the Spanish coach, who preferred to trust his assistant for this recruitment in such a particular position.
At the end of August, Luis Enrique also recalled that he had “always had an influence on transfers since my first steps at PSG”. He added: “It would be ridiculous for a club to sign players without taking into account the opinion of its coach. We have not taken a single player without my opinion. Another thing is to know if I have made them progress.”
