January 31 (Reuters) - Yugoslav international midfielder Jovan Stankovic joined French first division club Olympique Marseille on Wednesday from Spanish club Real Mallorca.
Marseille president Robert Louis-Dreyfus said Stankovic had
signed a deal for three-and-half years and would be available to
make his debut against AJ Auxerre on Saturday.
No transfer fee was officially announced but Marseille
sources estimated Stankovic would cost around 45 million francs
($6.3 million).
Stankovic expressed anger and disappointment with Real
Mallorca for agreeing to sell him.
"I want the fans to know that I have been forced to leave,"
he told Mallorca-based newspaper El Mundo-El Dia de Baleares in
a telephone interview on Wednesday.
Earlier he told Spanish radio station Onda Cero that he had
never intended to leave the club.
"I am very unhappy about going because I did not want to
leave Spain. I wanted to finish my career in Mallorca and so I
am really annoyed," Stankovic said.
The 29-year-old midfielder joined Mallorca in 1996 from Red
Star Belgrade.
Stankovic, capped 10 times by Yugoslavia, had been targeted
by Marseille coach Javier Clemente since Spain's ex-national
coach joined the former European champions in November.
He made an impression on the French last season when he
scored a hat-trick against Monaco in a UEFA Cup fourth round
first leg match wich Mallorca won 4-1.
Stankovic was instrumental in helping Mallorca gain promotion
to the Spanish first division in 1997 and in the club's first
European campaign -- which ended in a 2-1 defeat by Lazio in the
final of the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1999.
