"We had decided to bring in Nicolas Ibanez and we had to bring out a player," explained the technical director of the Tigres, another Argentinian, Diego Cocca.

"Unfortunately the rules are clear," continued Cocca, in place since November.

These rules establish that Mexican clubs can have ten foreigners in their squad.

"My idea is to have players who are at their best level", he insisted, while taking care to add that Thauvin is "a very good player" and even "a beautiful person".

Not enough, however, to stay within the quota of foreigners that the club has at the top of the closing tournament after three days.

Nor to compete with Ibanez, who had been loaned by Atletico Madrid – where he never played a match – to the modest Mexican club of Pachuco before landing in Monterrey.

A year and a half after his arrival from Marseille, the attacker, just 30 years old, was therefore asked to pack his bags with a rather modest record in the Tigers jersey: 39 matches for a meager total of eight goals and five assists.

23 times holder

Several times injured and expelled during one of his first matches in August 2021, he has only started 23 times.

The French Florian Thauvin and André-Pierre Gignac during a match with the Tigers against Guadalajara, September 13, 2022 in Jalisco © Ulises Ruiz / AFP / Archives

Thauvin's disgrace began on Monday, when the Mexican club announced in a press release its decision to "terminate" his contract.

On Tuesday, the player, whose previous experience abroad, in England in Newcastle, had been more than mixed (2015-16), had presented himself at the gates of the training center, with a lawyer to find that the access was now forbidden to him, according to certain sources.

Only his compatriot André-Pierre Gignac, the local idol, had exchanged a few words with him, eyewitnesses reported.

An agreement has finally been reached, the Tigers announced on Friday.

"Everything is settled", according to a club spokesperson contacted by AFP, who adds that the player could feel "quiet".

Now free of any commitment, Thauvin is looking for a club.

He received six million euros net per year in Monterrey, according to several sources, which places him among the highest salaries in Ligue 1 (PSG excepted).

Lyon and Celta Vigo in Spain could be interested.

“Adjustment is complicated”

Thauvin joins the list of French and foreigners who have trouble with local specificities.

"Adaptation is complicated," confirms Gignac, who remembers his own difficulties when he arrived in 2015.

"If you play against Pumas in the Ciudad de Mexico, it's Sunday at noon at 2,500 altitude. When I arrived, when I was playing at altitude, I couldn't breathe", he told RMC Last year.

Gignac has more than succeeded in his own adaptation.

At 37, the former Marseillais is the top scorer in club history with 179 goals.

He says he wants to play there until 2025, the year of his 40th birthday and his ten years in Mexico.

Last April, Thauvin nevertheless declared himself happy in Monterrey (500 m above sea level) where “there is sunshine every day”.

His wife, model Charlotte Pirroni, even occasionally posted photos of their vacations on the Mexican Caribbean coast.

Thauvin even confided to having relied on a particular physical trainer, in very correct Spanish.

During the interview, a Mexican journalist had warned him against the roughness of the opposing defenses, but not of the Mexican leaders.

© 2023 AFP