Mason Greenwood is keen on a return to the Premier League and believes people have ‘have moved on’ from the controversy that precipitated his exit, a report has claimed.
The 23-year-old, whose last game in the top flight came in January 2022, has reportedly put ‘a string’ of top clubs on notice after enjoying a productive campaign in Ligue 1 with Marseille.
Greenwood completed a £27million transfer to the French giants last summer, ending a 17-year association with Manchester United after he was arrested before being charged with attempted rape, assault and controlling and coercive behaviour.
Charges against Greenwood were dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service following the ‘withdrawal of key witnesses and new material coming to light’.
The forward spent a season on-loan in LaLiga before signing for Marseille under former Brighton boss Roberto de Zerbi. Despite scoring 19 goals in all competitions, Greenwood has at times failed to meet the Italian’s demands and was dropped last month for a lack of work rate.
According to the Sun, the former England international is ready to end his time away from the UK and is ‘pining’ for a return to the Premier League.
Marseille striker Mason Greenwood is reportedly ‘pining’ for a move back to the UK
The 23-year-old last played in the top flight for Manchester United against West Ham in 2022
The outlet quote a source who claims that the player and his partner Harriet Robson – with whom he shares two young daughters – initially ‘loved’ the anonymity which came with being abroad and ‘rebuilt their lives’ in Madrid.
‘He loved the fact he could just play football and his life off the pitch was not the subject of such intense focus,’ the source told the outlet.
However, after almost two years abroad, the ‘novelty’ is said to have worn off, with the ‘introverted’ Greenwood missing his family and friends back home.
Furthermore, it is claimed that Greenwood believes the ‘vitriol’ aimed at him during 2022 has ‘died down’ as people have ‘moved on’, allowing for a return to the North West.
Earlier this month, De Zerbi revealed some of the secrets behind Greenwood’s recent revival in form. Following reports of his lack of effort, fuming Marseille fans unfurled a banner in the north end of the Orange Velodrome, which called out Greenwood and team-mate Luis Henrique.
The banner read: ‘Greenwood, Henrique, get moving!!!’
De Zerbi also revealed he has been working alongside Greenwood’s father to aid his development – but insisted the forward still ‘wastes a little of his potential’.
‘He is an introverted person, a little closed, but he has a wonderful family around him, an extraordinary father with whom I worked a lot, he helped me a lot to manage him , with the help also of Mehdi Benatia.
Marseille boss Roberto de Zerbi has criticised Greenwood’s work rate this season for the club
‘It is true that sometimes he gives us the impression that he can score three or four goals per game, and sometimes also that he wastes a little of his potential and his value.
‘So how can we help him? Well sometimes by cuddling him, by taking care of him and sometimes also by being harder so that he continues his progression.
‘This is the main objective that I have with all my players, beyond all those that we can have with the club, because if I make my players progress we can achieve the club’s objectives faster.’
After leaving the Red Devils, Greenwood formally applied to switch his international allegiance from England, for whom he made one outing, to Steve McClaren’s Jamaica.
