He won’t be leaving on a free after all
This one changed shape along the way.
For weeks the story was that Duje Ćaleta-Car would be let out of the final year of his Olympique Lyonnais contract. Not any more. Marca report, and Foot Mercato confirm, that the Croatian centre-back is joining Sassuolo in a straight transfer.
Lyon and the Italian club shook hands on it in the last few hours. Sassuolo finished 11th in Serie A last season.
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Three years at Lyon, one of them somewhere else
He signed from Southampton in 2023. By last season Paulo Fonseca had no use for him, which is how a loan to Real Sociedad happened.
In San Sebastian he played. Properly played. Twenty-seven La Liga games and a goal, his place in the side back where he wanted it. At 29, with 38 Croatia caps behind him, another year of watching from the bench was never going to appeal.
Emilia-Romagna will not feel foreign. Ismael Kone and Darryl Bakola came through Marseille, Armand Lauriente through Lorient, and Nemanja Matic, a teammate at Lyon, is already in the building.
Lyon trim the wage bill again
From the Lyon end this is accounting as much as football. Niakhaté, Mata, Kluivert and Kamara already crowd the centre-back rota. One fewer salary buys a little air for a club still being watched closely by the DNCG.
Afonso Moreira and Martin Satriano went earlier this summer. With the window shutting on Tuesday, Ćaleta-Car probably will not be the last through the door.
His Lyon chapter closes quietly. Three years, one of them spent elsewhere, and an exit through Italy.
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