Galatasaray terminate Steven Nzonzi loan early

The Lions have cancelled French midfielder Steven Nzonzi’s contract on Friday, the final day of the January transfer window.

Turkish football powerhouse Galatasaray have parted ways with central midfielder Steven Nzonzi. The club have terminated the player’s contract on Friday.

The 31-year-old joined Galatasaray on a season-long loan from AS Roma in August, 2019.

The deal included an option to make his transfer permanent in exchange for €16 million.

However, after falling out with Galatasaray coach Fatih Terim due to his lack of discipline, the French midfielder had been effectively removed from first team duties in December 2019.

Galatasaray confirmed the departure on Friday as well as the fact that they will not pay the remainder of the player’s wages nor any other fee associated with the loan to AS Roma.

In the 15 appearances he made for The Lions, Nzonzi managed one assist.

The 2018 World Cup winner has managed to find himself a new club shortly after being let go by Galatasaray and is now playing for Ligue 1 outfit Stade Rennais.

In order to comply with Super Lig’s foreigner rules, Galatasaray have reduced their quota to 14 from 16 as per the league’s regulations.

With the arrival of Henry Onyekuru, Marcelo Saracchi and Jesse Sekidika, Galatasaray parted ways with Ryan Babel, Steven Nzonzi and have excluded Yuto Nagatomo and Christian Luyindama from the first team for the rest of the season.

Japanese star Nagatomo and DR Congo international Luyindama, who is out for the remainder of the campaign with a knee injury, have had their contracts officially suspended.

Norwegian full-back Martin Linnes has been included in the squad list of the remainder of the season and is expected to take part in the first team once again.