Inside Malick Fofana’s crazy 55-hour Sunderland transfer ordeal from owner’s crucial intervention to Arsenal snub

THE MALICK FOFANA transfer saga was “not a good image” for football and terrible for the environment.

But say all of the plane-crazy drama and “55 hours of stress” getting the over the line was worth it.

Fofana could easily have been lining-up for against the Black Cats on Saturday.

Instead, after one of the craziest deadline day transfer dramas in years, the 21-year-old Belgian winger is out to make the Gunners pay.

Arsenal have watched the 5ft 7in ace’s development at close quarters for the past two years as they eyed a solution for their left-sided woes.

The champions enjoy good relations with his agents Roc Nation after they facilitated Gabriel Martinelli’s recent move to Al-Hilal from the Emirates. And that led to them getting first dibs on signing him 24 hours before the deadline day chaos ensued.

Rightly or wrongly, the move to make him Martinelli’s replacement failed to get a unanimous seal of approval from the Gunners board. And their decision to pass up on the opportunity handed Sunderland the initiative.

Their sporting director Florent Ghisolfi thought it was a done deal when a £25m bid was accepted last Tuesday morning with terms already agreed with player and his agents.

But, just as a private jet set off to pick him up from Lyon, Prem rivals .

A phone call from Eagles manager Pierre Sage, who worked with Fofana at Lyon, threw a spanner in the works before the South London club offered a higher fee to the French side and the attacker more wages.

Fofana, sat at Lyon airport and now with a plane from each club waiting for him, had a choice to make. But it was another jet ride that proved key as Sunderland’s owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus flew from Switzerland to meet the player and, after matching Palace’s offer, got the deal over the line.

The 29-year-old billionaire stayed with the player as he underwent a medical at a private hospital in the French city for both clubs. But, finally, it was Ghisolfi who received the email confirming all those efforts had not been in vain an hour before the deadline that night.

Reflecting on the dramatic events, the ex-Roma chief told Sun Sport: “I have a lot of stories and can write a book in my eight years of being a sports director but this one was something crazy.

“I’m so sorry for the planet, for the environment, because it was a lot of planes for one signature!

“I was proud [of Louis-Dreyfus] because I was in the office, I couldn’t be anywhere else with all the things I had. I told him, ‘We have this problem.’ He said, ‘I’m going, I’m not far.’

Reports in France suggested that Fofana’s future was heavily decided by payments to Roc Nation. There were also suggestions from London that Palace pulled out due to worries over an ankle issue.

Ghisolfi admits the whole saga, which felt “55 hours” long, was not a good look for the beautiful game but he was always confident he would get his man.

He said: “The last days, I didn’t sleep too much. It was a rush, but at the end, it was a very good experience also to see the commitment of the manager and ownership.

“I always believed that he would sign in Sunderland because it was the right choice for him.

“He’s a good kid, he’s clever, he knows, he feels where he can be happy and where he can perform.”

Sunderland supporters got their first glimpse of their record buy at the Stadium of Light in Tuesday’s Carabao Cup win over Hull. Fofana will next be unleashed against Arsenal as he looks to show Mikel Arteta exactly what he missed out on.

Ghisolfi claims the Black Cats have secured a real gem as he shut down those ankle fears.

And despite the exhausting ordeal, he never considered pulling out of the deal over concerns regarding Fofana’s motives.

He added: “It’s a very good question – you have to know that when we move forward on a player, even if it’s the last day, we know the mentality and we know the personality exactly.

“With every player on our shortlist, we know exactly the personality. And we knew that Malick is a top kid.

“Unfortunately in football this type of situation can happen now and I’m sorry for that. It doesn’t give a good image of the football industry for sure but it can happen. You have to fight also in this type of situation as a club.

“The most important thing is we know that he is a top kid. He has a top mentality, and he will fit with Sunderland 100 per cent.

“No [ankle] issue. It’s fair, this is football, [for Palace] to cover themselves. It’s not the problem. Me, I need to protect my player, he has zero issue. We won this time, maybe we’ll lose another time, but we are very happy because he is exactly what we need.”