William Saliba was showered in affection from doting Marseille fans during his France national team debut against the Ivory Coast on Friday night.
The contest was played at the Stade Velodrome - home of Marseille, where Saliba has spent the entirety of the 2021/22 league season on loan from parent club Arsenal. Having signed for the Gunners in the summer of 2019 while the club was under the stewardship of Unai Emery, Saliba is still yet to play a single competitive minute for the club.
Remarkably, the former Saint Etienne star has managed to impress Didier Deschamps and make his international debut before playing for the club that forked out £30million for his services just under three years ago.
Speculation in recent weeks has suggested the defender could leave Arsenal before making an appearance as Marseille have declared an interest in keeping Saliba on a permanent basis.
If the response from the crowd inside Marseille's home ground for the international friendly on Friday was anything to go by, Saliba has already played his way into the hearts of the club's faithful. It just so happened that the 21-year-old enjoyed his debut inside the stadium he has been playing in all season with his loan side.
Every single touch was met with huge applause and cheers, a clear sign that he is loved in the south of France. The news comes just days after Saliba sparked headlines with his latest comments on the rumours around his club future.
The centre-back plunged his Arsenal future into doubt as he told RMC Sport: "I’ve never hidden the fact that I feel good here. I don’t know what my future holds, there’s still two months to go. The most important thing is to qualify for the Champions League and go as far as possible in the Conference League.
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"I think discussions will take place afterwards, at the end of May to early June, between Arsenal and Marseille – we’ll decide at that point. But staying on here would definitely not be a bad idea, on the contrary, I know the city, my team-mates, my manager. But it doesn’t depend on me."
Though the fact Saliba is now a French international would likely help the Gunners command a decent fee for him were they to sanction his departure, his stunning technical and physical attributes mean Arsenal are likely to try make things work.
Rumours that Mikel Arteta is not a fan of the player appear to be unfounded given the Spaniard has spoken previously about how he is wanted back at London Colney once his loan spell at Marseille ends. With that being said, Saliba was stripped of the squad number he was originally assigned - fellow defender Benjamin White taking the number four while Saliba has been away.
