Fabinho, the eternal Parisian restart – Champions League

August 2017, official resumption of AS Monaco. Fresh and jovial champion of France, Fabinho arrives late at La Turbie. " A missed plane "Says one within the club. The rumor, however, is thick. "Fabi" would have decided to boycott the resumption of the ASM to join the PSG. Everything is tied up between the player and the club of the capital, he has also started to visit apartments on Paname. The multi-purpose midfielder is finally late for the official resumption of AS Monaco but remains confident. He will join Unai Emery and the Brazilian clan at PSG.
Fifteen months later, Fabinho will be at the Parc des Princes for a Champions League match. But with the Liverpool jersey, club he joined last summer for 50 million euros. End of the story ? Not at all, since Fabinho plays very little on the banks of the Mersey (9 matches, 4 starts only) and faces XXL competition in the midfield. Reds : Henderson, Keita, Wijnaldum, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Milner, Lallana. Suddenly, the rumor returned to the source and here we are talking about Fabinho PSG for the next transfer window.

Klopp: "Of course he will not leave! "

Which has the gift of annoying Jürgen Klopp: " He settles in the team. He played three of the last four games and he played well. Now, the most intense period of the season is approaching and he has taken the time to adapt to what we wanted. Of course he will not leave! It would be crazy! This is the world in which we live where people who do not play for a few matches are open to a transfer. PSG, for its part, has always appreciated the Brazilian. Even more today where the future of Adrien Rabiot is difficult to envisage. Since 2017, Paris is looking for a number 6. A player able to squeeze, scratch and raise properly, either in low point or in a middle two. All that Fabinho knows perfectly well. Can Paris catch up with Fabinho? Difficult. But the former Real Madrid player has never been insensitive to the Parisian project.

During the summer of 2017, he first retreated behind the advice of its leaders who did not want to sell anyone to PSG. And then came Kylian Mbappé. And everything changed in the Brazilian's head. " When Kylian Mbappé left for PSG, I was happy for him because he was going to a club with a new project, etc. At first, the club told me: "No Fabi, we do not want to sell to PSG".And I thought that if Mbappé went to Paris, maybe the leaders would change their minds about me. But my case was more difficult, I think. And that's it … Mbappé left the last day of the transfer window. For my part, I felt that Monaco had still left the door open to negotiate with PSG or another club. But after that, I do not know if it was too late or what, in any case, it did not happen"Laments the boy in the columns ofNice morninglast year.

Fabinho: "Yes, I thought about going to the clash"

While he had in hand the famous "good of exit", Fabinho remains on the Rock while Mbappé, Bakayoko, Bernardo Silva or Benjamin Mendy s'jaillent elsewhere. "I could not shake my head what the club had promised me. I was sure I was right and, yes, I thought about going to the clash. But I discussed it with my friends, my family, my agent, it was not an easy decision. The image I would have given did not correspond to me. Even if I only had this as a solution, I preferred not to clash with the club. During the transfer window, I often spoke with the Vice President(Vadim Vasilyev)and I told him I wanted to leave. But hey, I'm not the first player who wants to leave and who ends up staying, it often happens in footballHe concludes in the columns of the regional daily. One question remains today: Has Fabinho changed? If his fate does not evolve favorably in Liverpool, will he be very wise in his corner to the point of missing a second time the train of the PSG? Because in Paris, his profile is expected as the liberator for more than two years.

By Mathieu Faure