MARSEILLE, France (AFP) - Marseille have reached an agreement with English champions Manchester United to take back their former goalkeeper Fabien Barthez on loan until June, the French club's president Christophe Bouchet claimed on the club website. The agreement, however, needs to be ratified by the international governing body FIFA as the deal is outside of the transfer window. Barthez, France's 1998 World Cup goalkeeper, has dropped down the pecking order at Old Trafford since manager Alex Ferguson signed American keeper Tim Howard in the summer with Northern Ireland's Roy Carroll as Howard's deputy.
Barthez, 32, is under contract with United till 2006. Although United confirmed they are in talks with Marseille , they denied any deal has been completed. "We are in discussions with Marseille but no final agreement has been reached," a United spokesman told the Press Association. Ferguson signed Barthez for a world record 7.8 million pounds (13 million dollars) from Monaco in May 2000. But he played for Marseille until 1995, winning the European Cup with them in 1993. It was unclear where this would leave Marseille's current first-choice keeper, Croatian Vedran Runje. "We would have to work out a clear working order," Bouchet told L'Equipe newspaper earlier Thursday. It appeared Barthez would take over as keeper for the French championship and Runje would be the Champions League keeper. France national coach Jacques Santini has kept faith in Barthez despite him losing his place in the United team but said this week he would prefer him to have regular first-team football in the run-up to the 2004 European Championships. Regards, John, Ext 3660 ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/GtUolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Subscription info WWW http://red11.org/list Reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] = subscribe to the list. [EMAIL PROTECTED] = unsubscribe from the list. Post message [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
