Transfer Centre

Frank Leboeuf doubts Dimitri Payet will return to France

By Matt Law, Football Editor | 03 January 2017

Former France international Frank Leboeuf claims that West Ham United attacker Dimitri Payet "has no interest" in returning to Ligue 1.

Former France international Frank Leboeuf has claimed that West Ham United attacker Dimitri Payet "has no interest" in returning to Ligue 1 amid suggestions that Marseille want to re-sign the 29-year-old.

Payet left Marseille for West Ham in the summer of 2015 and scored 12 times in 38 appearances for his English club during the 2015-16 campaign, before impressing for France at the European Championships.

The attacker has struggled this term, however, and it has been reported that Marseille want to re-sign the Frenchman in the January transfer window.

Leboeuf, who represented Marseille between 2001 and 2013 after five years with Chelsea, has claimed that Payet would not want to leave "the most prominent championship" to return to Ligue 1 football.

"I do not believe it for a moment. There was the episode with Didier Drogba who never came back," Leboeuf told RMC. "We talked about Zizou (Zinedine Zidane) who would come to his dream city. He never came. No one has yet signed in Marseille.

"When you're in the most prominent championship, you do not want to go back to Ligue 1. He has no interest in coming back. It is true that unfortunately, there is only the money that counts."

Payet has only scored twice in 18 Premier League appearances for West Ham this term.