Messi wants €220 million superstar at Barcelona, Real Madrid superstar set for shock exit to join Barcelona and more: Transfer Roundup, 19 May 2019

By Shambhu Ajith

Modified May 21, 2019 07:36 GMT

Lionel Messi has decided who he wants to partner up with

Nicolas Pepe will leave in the summer, Lille coach confirms

Nicolas Pepe is among the brightest young prospects in world football at the moment. The LOSC Lille winger has plenty of admirers with Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United being the most prominent names on the list.

Now Lille coach Christopher Galtier has revealed that the 23-year-old will leave the club this summer. He also added that he hopes the youngster makes a well thought out decision like the one he took to join Lille in the first place.

Galtier said,

"Nicolas Pepe will leave. Life's like that, football's like that today. He is a player of the highest level who will have a big decision to make on the choice of his next club.

"There will be a battle between the great European teams.

"I hope that he will take good amount of time to think about it, do his research, like he did when he came here and when he decided to stay here [last summer], find the right project."

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Sripad