Marseille agree to sell Remy to Newcastle
Reuters - Sunday 13 January 2013, 14:47
Olympique Marseille have struck a deal with Newcastle United over the transfer of France striker Loic Remy, the Ligue 1 club's president Vincent Labrune said on Sunday.
"We found an agreement with Newcastle. We gave Loic permission to negotiate with them," Labrune told French radio RMC.
According to media reports, the English Premier League club will pay a 10.5-million-euro fee for the 26-year-old Remy, who has 17 caps and has scored four goals for France.
Remy, who was in Marseille's squad for their Ligue 1 game at strugglers Sochaux on Sunday, had left his team-mates to discuss terms with the Premier League side, a source close to the club said.
The forward is set to join six other Frenchmen at 16th-placed Newcastle, including latest signing Mathieu Debuchy, and will replace Demba Ba at the front after the Senegalese joined Chelsea.
Injury-prone Remy, who joined Marseille in 2010 and scored 27 goals in 60 league appearances in his first two seasons with them, has been struggling to find his form since a thigh injury ruled him out of France's squad for the Euro 2012 finals.
He has started only two league games this term, with coach Elie Baup preferring striker Andre-Pierre Gignac or Ghanain prospect Jordan Ayew up front.
Remy has featured in 164 Ligue 1 games and scored 57 goals since making his debut with Olympique Lyon in 2006.