Chancel Mbemba yet to find new club due to high salary demands | OneFootball

Chancel Mbemba (30) has been a free agent since the start of July, but the former Marseille defender’s search for a new club is proving complicated – with financial demands proving a sticking point.

The Congolese international hasn’t featured for Marseille since the summer of 2023, when a dispute with the club’s hierarchy saw him suspended and then excluded from the first team under Marcelino and Roberto De Zerbi. Despite training with the reserves and playing for DR Congo during international breaks, Mbemba did not feature in a single minute of OM’s 2024/25 campaign.

Now officially a free agent, the former Porto man bade farewell to the club earlier this month: “L’histoire se referme. Merci pour tout Marseille bébé !” he wrote on social media, while insisting in June that he had “respected the club and the contract.”

Several clubs – including newly promoted Paris FC and sides from the Gulf – have tested the waters this summer. According to Foot Mercato, Mbemba has turned down offers as he looks for a salary higher than the estimated €320,000/month he earned at OM, as well as a significant signing bonus. That has so far deterred suitors, despite interest from Ligue 1 clubs such as Montpellier and Rennes over the past year.

The Kinshasa-born defender remains determined to stay in Europe and is continuing individual preparation, confident of finding a club in the weeks to come. But having not played club football for over a year, his window of opportunity may be narrowing.GFFN | George Boxall