Dijon FCO aren’t going to activate their purchase option for on-loan former Gunner Stephy Mavididi this summer, after seemingly falling out with the player.
Dijon president Olivier Delcourt confirmed they don’t plan to activate their €5m option to sign Mavididi this summer. Delcourt clearly wasn’t very happy with the player, implying issues with his desire and mindset.
“We were not going to activate a €5m option only for the player to come to blows with us immediately afterwards,” Delcourt said (via GFFN).
“I am very disappointed about this way forward. Dijon invested in him, put our faith in him and allowed him to get good exposure to Ligue 1. We are following other very interesting players in the same position, and who have a real desire to fight for our club.
“That mindset is one of the principal factors in our recruitment strategy this transfer window. We want real competitors.”
It’s a sad end to the former Gunner’s loan spell in France. He’ll now return to parent club Juventus, though fellow Ligue 1 club Montpellier are showing an interest. They’re reportedly in the process of submitting a €6m offer to Juventus.
Mavididi was hitting some form in 2020, with six goals and two assists in 13 games (11 starts). Overall, he scored eight and assisted two in 28 appearances for Dijon, so it was a pretty sharp upturn in the second half of the season.
Notably, he had a strong run in the Coupe de France. He scored or assisted in every round until the quarter-final elimination by PSG. The 120th-minute winner in the Round-of-16 was probably the highlight of his spell.
It was enough to get him on the radar for DR Congo internationally, and he clearly caught the eye around France. Unfortunately, whatever problems he had with Dijon behind the scenes brought an early end to that chapter.