Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images for Bursty
Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images for Bursty
Neal Maupay has admitted he stopped enjoying his football at Marseille shortly after signing for the French club from Everton.
Neal Maupay brought to an end his three-year spell as a Toffee last summer, with Marseille paying around £10 million (Liverpool Echo, loan plus obligation) to sign him. Maupay only made 32 appearances for the club, having loan spells away with Brentford and Marseille.
Maupay’s stint at Goodison Park was most definitely a failure. He scored just one goal for Everton.
But things have not got much better for him over in France.
Neal Maupay admits he stopped enjoying football
Maupay has given a new interview with RMC Sport, where he’s reflected on his first season at Marseille as a permanent player.
Limited to just 16 appearances last term due to injury, he said: “Last year was a very complicated season for me. I haven’t talked much about it, but there you go. I was sidelined for a large part of the season. I trained all alone, I came here, I saw no one. So it was, it’s not easy to live through
“Last year, last season, it was so complicated for me that. Actually, I lost that love a bit because I wasn’t playing, I was all alone, I wasn’t called up for matches. I lost that drive a bit, I lost the joy.”
In October and early November 2025, Maupay was completely left out of Marseille’s first-team setup and was forced to train separately. He had issues with his physical condition during this period, but he eventually worked his way back to the bench.
But around February, leading into March, he then struggled with a hip issue during his loan spell with Sevilla.
Where it all went wrong for Maupay at Everton
Maupay ought to have been a good signing for Everton, arriving at the club after doing well at Brentford. But he did not live up to expectations at Goodison Park.
Maupay arguably suffered from Everton’s style of play not really matching his own. He was a wiry, mobile striker who got involved in build-up play. Everton’s approach was more direct, and tailored more to main man Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
But Maupay squandered a lot of chances, which led to a bit of a crisis of confidence, and fans were understandably on his back.
Maupay then started to tangle with the fans, which rather signalled the beginning of the end for him at the club. Instead of knuckling down, Maupay took aim at fans for comments made about him on social media.
Then, Maupay infamously and incredibly disrespectfully wrote on X in December 2024 – while still under contract at Everton – ‘Whenever I’m having a bad day, I just check the Everton score and smile’. If it wasn’t the end before, that message certainly sealed it.
Maupay might have dug his heels in when the going got tough at Everton. But instead, he went in the other direction and failed to take accountability for poor performances.
So certainly, plenty of Everton fans will struggle to shed too many tears about Maupay’s difficulties last season.