PSG: Matvey Safonov and his lawyer make a surprising media appearance

It’s a transfer that surprised everyone. PSG signed Russian goalkeeper Matvey Safonov, spending 20 million euros for the man who was until recently Krasnodar’s starting goalkeeper. On the Paris side, he’s looking to fill a spot as Gigio Donnarumma’s backup. A transfer that was also surrounded by some uncertainty regarding his legal and administrative problems with his ex-partner, which allegedly delayed his arrival. Others have presented the goalkeeper as a sort of weapon for Russian soft power, in these very complicated geopolitical times.

In any case, the player and one of his lawyers spoke in an interview with Russian journalist Nobel Arustamyan, relayed and translated by PSG CultureThey have notably denied certain rumors, such as the participation of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s agent in the operation. “I don’t work with agents. For me, it’s nothing unique. I’ve never worked with agents. (…) I didn’t work alone on this transfer, of course. It would have been very strange if I had handled all the paperwork alone. I hired several lawyers to help me. The clubs agreed that there would be no agent involved in the transfer and therefore they would not have to pay an agent’s commission. I think it was good news for PSG because they were able to save some money.”explained the guard.

Safonov responds to skeptics

“Last year, Daler Kuzyaev joined Le Havre and I was his lawyer. I think we spent more time on this transfer than we did on Safonov. I received the offer from PSG on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we made a counter-offer and by Sunday the transfer was completed. We bought the tickets and flew to Paris. PSG is a very well-organized club. I spoke to Luis Campos, their sporting director. We negotiated and reached an agreement, then he put me in touch with his assistant. To book our tickets, we spoke to the PSG family department. They helped us book everything. Everything went very smoothly, every department of the club did its job. I have never seen such a well-oiled organization. We have an office in Switzerland and our partner has made several transfers with PSG. He works with Ousmane Dembélé and Randal Kolo Muani in particular. We talked a lot with him about our negotiation with PSG and some conditions that we wanted to change. If we had considered them as a simple oil club, we would have failed”added the lawyer.

Safonov also wanted to respond to Parisian fans, and the general public in general, who had not necessarily understood his arrival in Paris: “I think they (PSG, Editor’s note) follow the Russian championship. We had a very good season with Krasnodar, we were first at the break. So that must have counted for them I imagine. Good collective results, that’s what I was missing in my career until then. I was more consistent this season and they decided that it was time to make an offer. They didn’t make this decision after seeing me play only once”. The message got through.