Last Thursday, from the headquarters of the French Football Federation, Didier Deschamps, the national coach, was telling reporters how eager he was to work with the 19-year-old striker Anthony Martial.
He had just given the teenager his first call-up for the senior squad, and his complimentary words had the tone of a man aware that the introduction of a fresh, attacking talent might stimulate more interest among spectators in next week’s home friendly against Serbia.
By the weekend, however, the young man whom Deschamps had praised for “his speed, his strength”, his growing maturity and his versatility was stimulating plenty of interest for other reasons, and he was asking his new coach, Deschamps, if he could play truant from what was a threshold opportunity in his career.
For Martial, momentous, life-shaping events have come around so quickly in such concentrated fashion in the past few days he found himself in a traffic jam. Just as he heard of his first summons to the national side, he learned that Manchester United's interest in recruiting him from Monaco before the close of the transfer window was determined, urgent and handsomely budgeted.
The Premier League club wanted him in the north-west of England by Sunday, latest. The French Federation granted him exceptional leave to go there for his medical and to finalise a deal whose fee will probably make him the most expensive teenager in the history of the game and if, all the reported add-ons, based on performance targets, are realised, the most expensive Frenchman of any age.
A basic €50 million (Dh208m) could become a payout of €80m for United. That would eclipse the €75m Real Madrid spent on Zinedine Zidane in 2001.
That looks a daunting context for a young man whose potential has been recognised around Europe but who will now be under intense scrutiny as he joins a new league, and a demanding club, with relatively little top-class experience to arm him for the challenges.
Zidane had already won a World Cup and European championship when he moved from Juventus to Madrid. Martial has yet to win a senior cap. Since leaving Lyon, where he served his youth apprenticeship, for €5m in 2013, he has played 49 league matches, and scored 11 goals.
Those are not figures to suggest United have the established, prolific finisher they evidently need to partner captain Wayne Rooney in attack. They are not statistics that support the frequent comparisons made between Martial and a young Thierry Henry, a master of the Premier League in his mid-to-late 20s, who also made his name at Monaco, and grew up not far from the Paris suburb where Martial was born.
There is a large element of risk to the vast investment made by United.
But the hunch that Martial could become an exceptional attacker would certainly have grown in the past six months. In March last season, his Monaco coach, Leonardo Jardim, gave him a run in the side at centre-forward, rather than as a support striker, or winger, and the dividends were impressive, with a burst of eight goals in nine matches. He added poise to his acceleration and control, and was taking on powerful defenders with muscular authority.
“He proved himself last season,” said Jardim only last week as Monaco fell short of qualification for the group stage of the Champions League, a competition where Martial will now hope to leave his stamp with United. “He is still young but we put our faith in him.”
Monaco did so with a new contract earlier this summer, which enabled them to raise the sale price, though the quantities they will receive from United are far beyond what they anticipated as a resale price back in June. Valencia were interested in Martial, and thought €20m a realistic starting bid.
Deschamps will watch eagerly what Martial does in the nine months ahead of Euro 2016. He believes the Premier League has gained a footballer who has a rare combination of skills. “It’s hard to find the mix he has of pace, power and impact,” said the France coach. “When he plays through the middle, he can be effective moving into wider positions. He has great potential and is an interesting option for us.”
He must be more than that for United, whose squad he will link up with after September 9. His showings in the upcoming friendly internationals will now be far more scrutinised than he would have anticipated last Friday.
He wears a heavy price tag, suddenly, and that is a piece of baggage that can slow down the zippiest of sprinters.
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