Chelsea have reportedly ripped up Malang Sarr’s contract, with the centre-back now set to join Lens on a free transfer.
Sarr joined Chelsea from Porto on a free transfer in 2020, signing bumper five-year contract paying him £100,000-a-week. The 25-year-old initially returned to Porto on loan, before making 21 appearances for the Blues under Thomas Tuchel the following season.
However, he was then shipped out on loan to Monaco, but they did not exercise their option to buy Sarr and he was then frozen out by Mauricio Pochettino last season. In a press conference after Chelsea’s win over Luton last year, Pochettino even appeared to forget who Sarr was when asked about his absence, brutally replying: “Who?”
When the question was clarified, Pochettino added: “Oh my. Malang Sarr and then Jamie [Cumming], yeah. I don’t know what I can tell you. I don’t know because you surprise me. It’s like you’ve punched me and I am like this. We were talking about Luton! After I will explain, I wasn’t prepared for this.”
And French publication L’Equipe are reporting that Sarr is in ‘advanced contact’ with Lens about returning to France. Lens are said to be ‘optimistic’ that the deal will be completed quickly, with Sarr keen for a fresh start.
It has been more than a year since he last played a competitive game, with a source close to Sarr telling the Athletic earlier this year that the centre-back was finding it “difficult” after being frozen out by Pochettino.
“I have never seen him as low as this,” they were quoted as saying. “This is the first time I have seen him like this. He tries to change his mental state, but it is hard when you are not playing.
“He is not in the first-team dressing room anymore, he is with the kids in the other building. He feels outside the group. He tries to hide his feelings, but I know him, what he is really feeling. He wants to play football and works hard for that.
“He is completely fit. But at the moment, he does not know where he is going to play. Friends and family go stay with him occasionally. It is important for him to have people around him. He loved playing under Tuchel.
“But some of the closest friends he made, like N’Golo Kante and Mason Mount, have left. He goes to train because it is his job but I know he finds it very hard because any footballer who knows they are not going to play matches will find it difficult.”
