Arsenal’s William Saliba has responded to Dimitri Payet who jokingly taunted Marseille team-mate William Saliba over his recent call-up to the France squad.
Last month Saliba – currently on-loan at Marseille – was named in France’s international squad for the first time in his career as he made his debut against the Ivory Coast and played a full game versus South Africa.
However, speaking to RMC Sport, his club teammate Payet claimed Saliba was only selected by Didier Deschamps for the national team because ‘there were 14 injured behind him’ and that the 21-year-old was the last resort to bringing back Lillian Thuram.
“Yeah, but that’s because there were 14 injured behind him. At one point it was either him or they were calling 50 years old Thuram back!”
Saliba has now responded in kind to Payet following Marseille’s victory over PAOK in the Europa League on Thursday night where the former West Ham star scored Pukas Award contender in a 2-1 win.
Speaking about the midfielder, he said: ‘It’s been a long time (since he scored). At the moment he was only scoring penalties!’
Saliba was bought by Arsenal three years ago for a fee in the region of £25million but is yet to play a competitive match for the Gunners despite being highly rated by the club’s fans.
