Borussia Dortmund: Leonardo Balerdi wants to stay at Marseille beyond the end of his loan spell

Borussia Dortmund defender Leonardo Balerdi has said that he would like to stay with Olympique Marseille beyond the end of his loan spell.

After failing to break into the starting XI at Borussia Dortmund, Leonardo Balerdi joined Olympique Marseille on a season long loan deal with an option to buy last summer. The 22 year old has had an up and down season for the French side so far, making a total of 19 appearances across all competitions.

Balerdi fell out of favour under former head coach André Villas-Boas, but has regained his spot in the team since the arrival of Jorge Sampaoli. He has played 90 minutes in each of Marseille’s last six games, and also scored in the 2-0 win over Dijon earlier this month.

Speaking at a press conference, Balerdi expressed his desire to stay with Olympique Marseille beyond the end of the season.

"“The arrival of Jorge Sampaoli was favourable for me in terms of playing time. Stay at the club? We have begun to talk about it. I am thinking about it a bit but I am calm. I am very happy at Marseille, in the club but also in the city. I feel as if I am in Argentina. What I want, is to stay. But it also depends on Dortmund and Marseille.”“We will speak about it again, but I would like to stay.”"

Marseille have the option to sign Balerdi on a permanent transfer at the end of his loan spell for a fee of around 14 million euros. But at the moment, it remains to be seen if they will activate it. Reports in France claimed earlier this month that Marseille are interested in making the loan signing of Balerdi permanent. But they would like to negotiate the price down.

Balerdi joined Borussia Dortmund from Boca Juniors in January 2019 for a fee of 15 million euros. But he failed to make much of an impression on then head coach Lucien Favre, and was limited to just eight appearances. The Argentina international still has more than three years left on his contract with the Black and Yellows.