Anthony Martial is being targeted by Mexican side Pumas UNAM but the former Manchester United star’s “gigantic salary” is holding up a deal, according to a report.
AEK Athens open to an exit
Martial, 29, left Old Trafford at the end of the 2023/24 season after his contract expired with INEOS showing no intent to renew.
Across eights seasons the French forward played 317 times in a red shirt, scoring 90 goals and providing 54 assists.
Despite arriving as one of Europe’s hottest prospects from Monaco in 2015, injuries and a lack of consistency plagued Martial’s time in Manchester.
And these issues have not improved since he swapped England for Greece to join AEK Athens on a free transfer, signing the “biggest contract in the club’s history when he put pen to paper last year”, the Daily Mail reports.
Martial made 23 appearances for the Greek side last season, returning nine goals and two assists, as AEK qualified for the Europa Conference League after finishing fourth in the Super League Greece.
The Yellow Blacks would likely have been expecting more from a player once predicted as a Ballon d’Or contender, but Martial is a long way from the player who took English football by storm in his first season with United.
This campaign has proved exactly that point, with AEK manager Marko Nikolic dropping the Frenchman from his matchday squad for the last six games.
The club are open to Martial’s exit with the Greek transfer window set to shut tomorrow. But the forward’s salary in Athens is preventing a deal as he does not wish to give it up, despite interest from abroad.
Wage demands holding up a deal
Pumas – currently 10th in Liga MX – are targeting Martial, according to Mexican reporter Cesar Luis Merlo.
“AEK is willing to loan him to Pumas free of charge (they should only pay his salary), but Martial earns a gigantic salary, gigantic,” Merlo states on his YouTube channel (as relayed by the Daily Mail).
“They’ve been talking to him for three or four days, but the player still hasn’t given in to his demands. I’m not ruling him out 100 percent, but if he hasn’t budged in four days, I don’t see it being easy for him to move today.
“The reality is that Pumas is trying to get Martial, but the player doesn’t want to budge even a euro. For now, neither Martial nor his agent have budged.
“If they do, there may be a chance, but we’ll have to wait and see,” Merlo concludes.
There is a long line of players who have come through the door at Old Trafford in recent years whose sole concern was cashing their cheque with the club, rather than performing on the pitch. INEOS will simply be relieved they showed one example of this the exit last year.
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Darragh Fox
Darragh is a writer for The Peoples Person who spent three years as a history graduate slowly realising football was by far the most interesting thing to write about.
