Tuesday, January 18, 2022 at 6:40 PM• Dominic Mostert • Last update: 18:48

Sead Kolasinac continues his career at Olympique Marseille. The left-back was still under contract with Arsenal for six months, but has dissolved his contract by mutual consent. Kolasinac could not count on much playing time under coach Mikel Arteta, so his club was willing to cooperate with a transfer-free departure. He has successfully passed the medical examination and has been officially introduced as the latest addition to Ligue 1’s number three.

Kolasinac, 28, signs a contract until mid-2023 in Marseille. He started his career at Schalke 04 and made the switch to Arsenal in the summer of 2017. In the season before his transfer to London, he was part of the Bundesliga’s Team of the Year, so expectations were high. Kolasinac was an immediate asset to his new club with a goal in his first appearance against Chelsea in the Community Shield (1-1), a game Arsenal won on penalties. In total, Kolasinac was good for 118 official matches on behalf of the gunners.

The 42-time international of Bosnia and Herzegovina was loaned out to his former club Schalke 04 in the second half of last season and was given the captain’s armband in Gelsenkirchen. In the summer, Kolasinac returned to Arsenal. Under Arteta, he played five official games this season, although it involved two one-minute substitutions. Kolasinac played 90 minutes three times: twice in the EFL Cup and once in the Premier League. His substitute in the lost FA Cup game against Nottingham Forest (1-0) on Sunday 9 January will go down in the books as his last game for Arsenal.

Arsenal also seem to be saying goodbye to another defender in the short term: according to transfer market expert Gianluca Di Marzio, Pablo Mari will finish the season on a rental basis with Udinese. There is no option to buy, which means that Marí will return to Arsenal in the summer. His contract in London will run until the summer of 2024. The central defender, who was loaned out by Manchester City to NAC Breda in the 2017/18 season by Manchester City, only made three official games this season.