“It had torn my heart to leave Montreal, I’m not going to hide it”, admits Saphir Taïder to us on the phone. The player today without a club even says today that he “would favor” an offer from CF Montreal before all others.
Press joined the former Impact midfielder in France, a few months after the termination of his contract with Saudi club Al-Aïn for default of payment.
That story first surfaced here last Tuesday, through Nilton Jorge of independent media outlet Kan Football Club.
KAN FC reported comments quoted during an interview with Goal Arabia, in which Taïder revealed that his club had not paid him since January 2021. That is to say three months after his departure from Montreal.
The media The Fennec Gazette added that Al-Ain had still not reimbursed the $ 6 million owed to Taïder for his three-year contract, despite the player’s success with FIFA.
It had started well for Saphir Taïder after his departure from Montreal. He had scored three goals and added an assist in seven games in Saudi Arabia. But an injury kept him out of the game from December… and he never played again. The club stopped paying him and other players soon after.
“I got injured at the end of December, I tried to come back to the game at the end of January, but I still had pain,” says Taïder. It’s not necessarily because of the injury, because I’m not the only one who hasn’t been paid. ”
Did the club make promises to you that it broke?
“In these countries, it often happens that wages are delayed. For reasons unknown to me, there are often salary delays of one, two, or even three months. ”
It was therefore seven months later, in August, that Taïder took the bull by the horns.
“I left the club because I had defaults on my payments,” he explains. I was only able to do it at the end of August because there are rules mentioned by FIFA that do not allow you to do anything and everything. ”
“Obviously, at the end of August, it was the end of the transfer window, so all the transfer windows were closed,” he adds. I had to wait until January for the new mercatos to open. ”
Hence the recent interviews, then.
But as much as Taïder wishes to breathe new life into his career, he also wants to “condemn” the clubs which act in this way.
“Thank God, I have nothing to complain about,” said the Algerian midfielder who also played in Italy and England before MLS. But there are cases where players find themselves in difficulty. Members of the staff, Also. ”
“Basically, my interview with Goal, it was to condemn clubs like mine which do not respect their financial and professional commitment. It was to send a message to the Saudi sports federation and ministry to control this kind of thing, because it is very serious. They are the first to want to organize international competitions, and they are the first to not respect the rules. All of this can have consequences for many players. I’m fine, but there are some that are something else. ”
The consequence that hurts him the most today is this inactivity which keeps him away from the Algerian selection.
“To be in the selection, you have to be competitive,” he explains. When I speak of dreams, I am talking about that. Finding the selection for an Algerian is everyone’s dream. Obviously, when you’re inactive, not because of me but because of a lack of professionalism, you have to condemn this club because we don’t play. ”
Towards a return to Montreal?
Taïder scored 20 goals and collected 21 assists in 76 games with the Impact in MLS, from 2018 to 2020. Arrived on loan from Bologna as a designated player under the Rémi Garde era, his official transfer to Bleu-blanc- black was confirmed in November 2019.
The former Impact left Montreal while the club was in the midst of the playoffs, in October 2020. Consistent with his words of the day, he said at the time to leave with “a torn heart”. Sports director Olivier Renard also spoke of an “opportunity” for Taïder and of “satisfying his desire” to be transferred to Al-Ain.
Does he regret his decision today?
“When I leave Montreal, I have a discussion with Olivier Renard,” he remembers. I don’t want to leave Montreal. It was I who decided to leave, but I wanted to stay. For different reasons, I made the choice to leave and I do not regret it. I have always said that in Montreal, I felt great. ”
“At that point, I had a year’s contract left. Obviously, renewing there was not easy because we were in the middle of the COVID period. I had a large offer in Saudi Arabia. It was a lot of things, and I made the choice to leave. ”
As mentioned earlier, the January transfer market is open. If Montreal made him an offer, would he accept it?
“I think so,” says Saphir Taïder. I would favor Montreal over all the other offers I can have because my family feels so good there, and me too. When you have a family, you really prioritize the family aspect more than anything else. ”
It is difficult to know the current level of Saphir Taïder, a symptom of his inactivity. Its hypothetical acquisition would also not fit with the philosophy of Olivier Renard, who seeks to acquire young players at a good price, to advance them and then to try to sell them at a profit.
CF Montreal has so far informed Press that the club would not comment on the situation.