Eric Abidal transfer news: Former Barcelona defender signs one-year extension with Monaco...then joins Olympiakos three days later

Reports that the collapse in the free transfer of Victor Valdes to Monaco led to Abidal's surprise departure

Eric Abidal is presented as an Olympiakos player (Twitter/@olympiacos_org)

Eric Abidal has joined Greek league champions Olympiakos three days after agreeing a new one-year deal with Monaco.

The former Barcelona defender agreed to stay with the Ligue 1 runners-up along with Ricardo Carvalho after the pair signed one-year contract extensions earlier in the week.

However, Olympiakos confirmed on their Twitter account that they had signed the ex-France international after agreeing a transfer with Monaco, and there have been some suggestions that the collapse in the move for goalkeeper Victor Valdes could be the reasoning behind Abidal’s exit.

The club issued a statement on their website that read: “Olympiacos announces the acquisition by transcription from Monaco, of the player Eric Abidal.”

The 34-year-old was diagnosed with liver cancer in 2011, undergoing a liver transplant later that year and returning to action with Spanish club Barcelona. Having left the Catalans at the end of the 2012-13 season, Abidal returned to his former club Monaco on a free transfer, and had agreed to extend his stay earlier this week.

Eric Abidal is presented as an Olympiakos player (Twitter/@olympiacos_org)

But when Valdes failed a medical this week, the French club elected not to sign the Spaniard, who also departed Barcelona this summer after choosing not to sign a new contract.

Valdes is recovering from a serious knee injury that kept him out of the end of the season as well as the World Cup for Spain, although their defence of the crown they won in South Africa in 2010 came to a disappointingly early exit after Spain were eliminated in the group stages.

Abidal posted this picture with the caption (in French): "Very happy to have signed with Olympiakos. Thank you for the welcome and your confidence." (Twitter/@EAbidalOfficial)

Monaco vice-president Vadim Vasilyev confirmed on Thursday that the deal was off, saying: “Valdes will not come to Monaco. He is injured, so he will not come.”