There is only one kind of morality in football and it is money. And there is one currency that football’s morality prefers above all others, and which it accepts with a big smile on its face, and that is goals. And Mason Greenwood scores goals.
On Sunday evening, Greenwood stood amid the tumult of the Stade Velodrome, the ball tucked under his arm, as the drums beat relentlessly from the Virage Nord behind the goal, a firecracker exploded and Marseille and Strasbourg players jostled, shouted and shoved.
It was midway through the second half and Marseille were a goal down but they had a penalty and Greenwood was to take it. A kind of calmness comes over strikers like him in a moment like this. Greenwood looked separate. Detached. As if he could blot out the noise.
Eventually, when the attempts to unsettle him had ceased, Greenwood put the ball down on the spot and took a few steps back. And then he ran up and drilled his kick low to the left of Djordje Petrovic and beyond the outstretched hand of the Strasbourg goalkeeper.
There was a huge roar of exultation and relief from the delirious fans in this great cauldron of French football and as the ball bounced out of the back of the net, Greenwood stooped to pick it up and booted it high into the cold night air.
As the former Manchester United wunderkind walked back to the centre circle, kissing his wrist and pointing to the heavens, the stadium announcer yelled out his name above the din.
Mason Greenwood has put in impressive performances since joining French side Marseille
The 23-year-old scored scored his twelfth goal of the season in a win over Strasbourg
‘Mason…,’ he shouted, leaving a pregnant pause. And 60,000 fans filled that pause by roaring ‘Greenwood’ in unison. They repeated the ritual three times and each time, they called out his name louder and louder.
Before the game restarted, the television screens in the press box cut to the area of the stadium where the Marseille directors were sitting and replays showed them leaping up and punching the air when Greenwood’s penalty hit the back of the net. They looked as if their ship had come in.
The penalty was Greenwood’s 12th league goal of the season and even if the 1-1 draw left Marseille nine points adrift of PSG at the summit of Ligue Un, it lifted Greenwood clear at the top of France’s scoring charts, one ahead of PSG’s Bradley Barcola and Lille’s Canada forward Jonathan David.
And so the dream goes on. The money dream, that is. That is all that is happening here. In Marseille, one of the journalists who covers the club repeated a phrase I heard several times in the port city at the weekend. He said Marseille were ‘cleaning’ Greenwood until he was fit to be welcomed back by Europe’s elite.
It is three years, almost to the day, that Greenwood, who was regarded as the best young player in the country and a future superstar, played his last match for United, a 1-0 home win against West Ham. He was 20 years old.
Eight days later, Greenwood was arrested on suspicion of rape and assault after police became aware of graphic images and videos circulating online and was suspended from training and matches by United.
In October of that year, Greenwood was charged with attempted rape, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and controlling and coercive behaviour. He denied all the charges and in February 2023, the Crown Prosecution Service announced the charges had been dropped after key witnesses withdrew and ‘new material came to light’.
United procrastinated about how to proceed. When news was leaked that they were considering bringing Greenwood back into the fold under then manager Erik ten Hag, the public outcry was such that they abandoned that plan and accepted, reluctantly, that he would never play for them again.
Greenwood was arrested in January 2022 for suspected attempted rape, assault and coercive behaviour – but the charges were dropped 13 months later by the Crown Prosecution Service
Man United procrastinated with how to proceed over their young, academy talent
They were considering bringing Greenwood back into the fold under then manager Erik ten Hag
What they did not accept was the idea that they could not make any money out of him. Greenwood was a machine that had malfunctioned. He was an asset gone awry. He could be reprogrammed. He could be rebranded. He could be rebuilt. He was sent out on loan to Getafe in Spain’s top flight.
After his year at Getafe last season, Marseille is the next step of his rehabilitation. The final step before everybody tells themselves that polite society has forgotten all about what happened in Manchester and that Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid or Juventus will feel it is safe to pay big bucks for him.
Then everybody’s happy. There is no romance in this part of the Cote d’Azur. No talk of redemption or a man rebuilding his life. Marseille are real estate speculators, flipping a property. They paid United £27.5m for him at the start of this season and, if Greenwood, now 23, keeps scoring, they figure they can get double that this summer.
They will be smiling in Manchester, too. The suggestion in the south of the France is that United built a handsome sell-on clause into the transfer agreement with Marseille and that they will get 50% of the fee when Greenwood moves on. There’s not much else to smile about at Old Trafford, after all.
At Marseille, most of the fans love him. Goals do that, too. And Greenwood is still a wonderful player to watch. He is technically assured and equally at ease with his right foot or his left. He took his penalty right-footed and later in the game, he unleashed the ball of the match, a sumptuous 50-yard pass that nearly led to another Marseille penalty, with his left boot.
The taxi driver who drove me into the city on Sunday morning was a fanatical OM supporter. When I mentioned Greenwood’s name, he said simply ‘le meilleur’. The best. He used the verb ‘pardonner’ to describe the fans’ attitude towards him. He said Greenwood had been forgiven.
Others find what is happening strange. No one talks about Greenwood’s past any more. It is taboo. It is a non-subject. Greenwood, too, is largely silent. Marseille, for obvious reasons, rarely make him available to the media. On Sunday, he was the goalscorer and Marseille’s man-of-the-match but although other home players came to the mixed zone to talk, of Greenwood there was no sign.
It is only opposition fans who remind Marseille of Greenwood’s uncomfortable past. They take great delight in singing about what they see as the contrast between Marseille’s principled stance against issues like Qatar’s ownership of PSG and their pragmatism over the signing of Greenwood.
In the end, the Red Devils opted to send Greenwood on loan to Getafe in Spain’s top flight
After his year at Getafe last season, Marseille is the next step of his rehabilitation
Perhaps Marseille consider it a small price to pay. In the club superstore, Greenwood’s replica shirt is everywhere. His name is printed on blue and white shirts and on orange shirts on the racks. In the foyer, there are four shirts chosen for supporters to have their picture taken with: Balerdi, Rongier, Maupay and Greenwood.
Sometime soon, it is thought there will be another step forward in Greenwood’s rehabilitation. The FA say that he is not under consideration for England, even though Thomas Tuchel is not blessed with great riches among his striking options and, purely on talent, Greenwood would have a good chance of making the squad.
Instead, the suggestion is that he is close to completing paperwork that will seal his switch to play international football for Jamaica. ‘He wants to join the Reggae Boyz. I know that,’ Jamaica boss Steve McClaren said recently. ‘Every time I speak to him, I’ve no reason to doubt that, and the process goes on.’
That move may happen as early as next month. Marseille are said to welcome the prospect because international football would heighten his profile and raise his price. Greenwood may yet feature in the next year’s World Cup finals in the USA, Mexico and Canada.
Winston Wolf, Quentin Tarantino’s famous fixer, could barely have managed it better. The ‘cleaning’ of Mason Greenwood is almost complete.
United have a handsome sell-on clause into the transfer agreement with Marseille
Antony’s final trick
I watched the final stages of Manchester United’s defeat to Brighton on Sunday, peering at a television through the window of a Marseille brasserie. I could have sworn I saw Antony beating his man, which would have been a first, and probably a last, in United colours. It must have been a trick of the light.
Cherries on the road
The Bournemouth supporters’ coaches left the south coast for the lunchtime kick-off at Newcastle on Saturday at 2.14am.
Only a league that does not care about its fans, abetted by broadcasters who abuse them, too, would countenance fixture scheduling like that. The Football Supporters’ Association’s ‘Stop Exploiting Loyalty’ campaign never seemed more relevant.
