Football
Mark Rodden 9y

Anthony Martial faces new challenge at Man United - Didier Deschamps

Anthony Martial is "changing galaxy" by leaving Monaco for Manchester United in a deal reported to be worth €80 million, according to France manager Didier Deschamps.

Martial, 19, was given permission to leave French headquarters at Clairefontaine on Monday so that he could finalise a move to Old Trafford.

The attacker has yet to be capped at senior level by France but he is set to become the most expensive French player in history despite playing just 52 matches in Ligue 1.

Martial only joined Monaco from Lyon two seasons ago for €5m but Deschamps said he was not surprised that United were now paying so much for him.

"He's changing planet a bit, changing galaxy," the former Monaco and Marseille boss said at a news conference. "It's up to him now to continue his progress and to get game time."

L'Equipe summed up the significance of the transfer fee with a front page headline on Tuesday that simply said "more expensive than Zidane."

The French sports daily says that Martial will initially cost Manchester United €50m but, if bonus targets are hit, the fee could rise to €80m -- €5m more than Real Madrid paid Juventus to buy Zinedine Zidane in 2001.

Deschamps, however, feels that transfer fees are likely to increase in future.

"These transfers are going to continue because football is generating more and more money," he said. "These days English clubs have colossal resources. From the moment they pay whatever the price, it becomes almost impossible to refuse such sums."

Lyon are also set to benefit from the transfer, having included a 20 percent sell-on clause when they let Martial leave for Monaco.

Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas confirmed on Monday that they will initially receive around €10 million as part of the deal, but that he expects the club to get "a little bit more" from performance-related bonuses.

"Everyone here knew he was a rising star and that's why we kept the rights for this deal," Aulas told a news conference.

"It's a very good deal for Anthony and I'm very happy for him. It's a very good deal for Monaco too, one that we probably couldn't have done because Monaco have connections with a certain number of very big traders of very big players.

"And because we were clever enough to manage the short-term as well as the medium- to long-term, we're very happy."

Martial's first club was CO Les Ulis, which is also where Thierry Henry, Patrice Evra and Yaya Sanogo learned their trade as teenagers in the suburbs of Paris.

Les Ulis are due a windfall as a result of Martial's move as well since FIFA solidarity payments for clubs who developed a player from the age of 12 to 21 are set at 5 percent of a transfer fee.

Martial left Les Ulis at 14 and L'Equipe estimates that they will earn around €600,000 from the transfer -- the equivalent of three times their annual budget.

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