Manchester United academy graduate Mason Greenwood has spent the last 18 months playing for Marseille after leaving Old Trafford permanently in the summer of 2024
Mason Greenwood looks on during a Marseille match
Mason Greenwood joined Marseille from Manchester United(Image: Getty Images)
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Marseille president Pablo Longoria says his mother, Begona, approved the club's signing of Mason Greenwood after seeking her advice.
Manchester United sold Greenwood to Marseille around 18 months after his arrest by Greater Manchester Police on suspicion of assault, rape, sexual assault and threats to kill. He was then charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm, attempted rape and engaging in controlling and coercive behaviour.
However, the Crown Prosecution Service dropped all charges against him after new material that came to light, and a key witness withdrew. Greenwood has since said: "I did not do the things I was accused of".
Longoria has now spoken about the situation for the first time since. He told The Telegraph: "For me, it's correct to speak openly about it.
"Creating taboos in life is never positive. For us, it was a massive market opportunity from a sporting perspective, where we analysed very carefully what really happened.
"In that case, having done due diligence and having all the information – and this is the first time I speak about this – with all the information, I called my mother. And I said, 'What do you think, knowing all the situation?'
"And my mother, who used to work in the prison system in Spain, having a very innovative prison system model in Spain – she was recognised with the medal of the state – so I ask her, having all this information, 'what would you do in my position?' And she said to me, 'Do it', with all the information.
"It was important because I wanted someone who doesn't have the incentive of the sport, because the talent is there, that her only incentive is the good of her son, as a man, not as a president. And, for me, it was very important that she said to me, knowing all of this, 'do it'."
Longoria added: "For me, at the moment when you have the full information, you deal with it with normality, because this is the most important thing – to have normality in life. Deal with that.
"Yes, I know that there is criticism. I know that the situation, it's so many times, potentially reputational [damage].
"But, I repeat, if you think that you are taking the right decision, with the right level of information, and from a human perspective as well, because Mason, he's a good kid, seriously. From that time, I sleep at night."
Longoria continued: "I'm not the kind of man who makes judgments without knowing everything and without taking into account all the different elements. It is also not about saying, 'what goes on outside football I don't care about'. That is not correct."
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