William Saliba will not be playing in the Coupe de France final for St Étienne later this month, with the Ligue 1 club officially confirming this reality with a social media post wishing him well on Sunday afternoon.
Les Verts had been involved in a protracted contractual battle with his parent club Arsenal over the 19-year-old’s potential involvement in the match at the Stade de France, with the Gunners reticent to allow the French youth international to play owing to the fact that it would trigger the North London club having to pay an additional €2.5m bonus transfer payment owing to the agreement struck last summer for his signature.
Saliba was furious that an agreement was not reached before his season-long loan back with Les Verts ended on 30th June, bringing Arsenal to return to the negotiating table during the first week of July with ASSE to try to find a way forward.
But the two sides were unable to do so before the end of that week, which marked the closing of the first of two summer transfer windows in France this summer.
👑 William, ta famille Verte te souhaite 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩 pour la suite de ta carrière 💚
— AS Saint-Étienne (@ASSEofficiel) July 19, 2020
👋4️⃣ pic.twitter.com/qYobJGNH22
