French defender Jean-Clair Todibo has expressed his desire to leave FC Barcelona and move to French club OGC Nice on a permanent basis.
Todibo (21), currently on loan in France, said during a press conference on Monday that he’s not sure everything will be sorted for next season, but his ambition is to stay at OGC Nice. He strongly hopes it will happen, and added that his individual performances will determine whether he stays or not.
When asked about FC Barcelona, Todibo answered that he is not very interested in what is going on at the club. He sometimes watches the games, mainly because he wants to support his friends and fellow Frenchmen Ousmane Dembélé, Clément Lenglet and Samuel Umtiti.
Apart from watching those matches, he is not necessarily following the team, and he is focused on what is important for him at the moment, OGC Nice: “What good does it do to dream of the Barcelona defence when at the weekend I play against Rennes or Nîmes? The most important thing is to focus on those matches. They are the matches that will bring points for Nice. Today, I am a Nice player, I am not a Barcelona player.”
Todibo was also asked about Barça possibly achieving another remontada against PSG in the Champions League, to which he responded that it doesn’t interest him at all, but he does hope for the players that they do it. However, he added that it’s not his problem whether it happens or not.
Todibo joined FC Barcelona from Toulouse in the 2019 winter transfer window. After only making four appearances in La Liga, he was loaned out to Bundesliga club Shalke 04 for the second half of the 2019-2020 season, where he played eight games. For the current season, Todibo was initially loaned out to Portuguese team Benfica, but he wasn’t in Jorge Jesus‘ plans and didn’t start any games in the league, after which he was loaned out again for the remainder of the season, this time to OGC Nice.
He now seems to be a starter at OGC Nice, where he forms a centre-back partnership with Arsenal loanee William Saliba.
