According to some reports, as relayed by Football Italia, “Roma boss Rudi Garcia has tried to diffuse the situation between the club and Mehdi Benatia.”
The aforementioned source said that the Moroccan talisman was spotted recently training alone at the club’s training complex.
Corriere dello Sport said that Rudi Garcia spent “the majority of yesterday’s evening speaking with the defender, trying to convince him to stay.”
It is worth highlighting that the spat between Benatia and Roma is mainly due to the way the club handled the player’s contract negotiations, which was far below his expectation after a formidable season.
This latter source believes that Benatia was since-then “fuming with sporting director Walter Sabatini, who said at Press conference in June that the centre-back was ‘worth €63m’.”
“Garcia is supposed to have told Benatia that he will be the third name on the team-sheet next season behind Francesco Totti and Daniele De Rossi,” Football Italia reported.
For the time being Benatia is heavily linked to the premier league with some reports indicating that his move is just a matter of days.
The Moroccan Times
