“You have to know how to leave the table when respect is no longer served.” It was by drawing on a culinary metaphor that Mamadou Sakho announced that he was leaving Montpellier with immediate effect, a little over a week after “a little clash” with Michel Der Zakarian, in the words of the Hérault coach, in the locker room of the Montpellier training center.
According to’Team, everything started from a decision by the MHSC coach, author of an arbitration decision not to Sakho’s taste during an opposition at the end of the session. Visibly annoyed, the former Paris Saint-Germain player headed prematurely towards the locker room. When he was joined there by Der Zakarian after the end of training, the latter allegedly informed him that the training sessions were “not à la carte”, the incident then degenerating into a physical altercation.
“I spent two years in this family club where I enjoyed sharing my high-level experience with my teammates and “my little brothers” from the training center,” explained the former Parisian captain, who took advantage of it to thank everyone except who you imagine. Sakho, who returned for physical training on Monday at the club’s premises, has only played seven minutes since the start of the season. Within a central defense, subject to strong competition, he was ahead of at least Kiki Kouyaté, Becir Omeragic, the only defensive recruit, Christopher Jullien, starter at the start of the season, or the international Espoir Maxime Estève, used as left back.