Lille have taken action that raised even bigger questions over the transfer that took Victor Osimhen to Napoli, which was perhaps worth half the supposed €81m fee.
At the time, after weeks of negotiations, the deal was done for a reported €71m plus up to €10m in bonuses.
That included the cost of four players who Napoli handed over to Lille – Orestis Karnezis, youth team players Claudio Manzi, Ciro Palmieri and Luigi Liguori.
It was always considered somewhat surprising that the unknown teenagers were given such high transfer market ratings as part of the deal, up to €20-30m in total.
What raised eyebrows even more was that they never actually played for Lille, immediately loaned out to Fermana in Serie C.
Now Goal.com claim Lille have suddenly terminated their contracts by mutual consent, essentially letting them walk away as free agents.
L’Equipe had already reported in June that French authorities were investigating the Osimhen transfer, although sources at Napoli remained confident it was an issue with Lille’s accounting rather than their own.
In the end, it may well be that Napoli paid closer to €40m for Osimhen.
Un anno fa il Napoli perfezionò l’operazione Osimhen inserendo nell’affare i cartellini dei giovani Manzi, Palmieri e Liguori 🤝
Oggi il Lille ha rescisso il contratto con tutti e tre i calciatori azzurri 🇮🇹 🔚 https://t.co/RQjOKlIHM4
— Goal Italia (@GoalItalia) August 2, 2021