€747m in transfer fees in 10 years – the secret behind Lille’s remarkable conveyor belt of talent

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Hazard, Osimhen & Yoro 

In many ways, Leny Yoro’s move to Manchester United is rather unprecedented. The young French star makes the move to Old Trafford as the most expensive 18-year-old signing in the history of the game and joins Erik Ten Hag’s side as the eighth most expensive central defender in the history of the sport. But in other ways, the former Ligue 1 prospect makes the move to the Premier League down a well-trodden road. Especially when we consider where Yoro learned his trade. 

Indeed, Yoro joins Man Utd with a notable seal of approval following his education and development as a future defensive star after coming through Lille’s youth academy and joining the French side’s first team. Few clubs across Europe’s top flight can lay claim to moulding as many future stars of English football as Lille can. And, to the club’s credit, they’ve made sure to profit from such hard work each and every time a player opts to depart the Stade Pierre-Mauroy for England. Following Yoro’s move to Man Utd, the club’s profits in the transfer window over the last 10 years hit a remarkable sum of €372m. Which is not only the highest figure in all of French football, but it is bested by just three clubs in all of European football. So how do Lille succeed in developing and then profiting from so many young stars? 

Although French football is famed for developing some of the best players in the world at a level of quantity and quality that few other nations can match, Lille actually stand out as a notable exception to the idea that each Ligue 1 club has a constant stream of young players from their academy ready to step up and become stars. For example, of the 15 most valuable transfer fees the club have received for their players, just five could lay claim to French citizenship. “Lille’s academy isn’t the most striking, as most of the best products were born before 2000,” notes Transfermarkt’s Ligue 1 expert Ronan Caroff when asked about the lack of French players among Lille’s biggest sales. “ Benjamin Pavard, Martin Terrier or Lucas Digne would be the main names that come to mind when thinking about Lille homegrown talents, even if now Yoro, Lucas Chevalier and Ayyoub Bouaddi are starting to turn this reputation around.” 

Indeed, the real secret behind Lille’s success in the transfer market lies in their ability to scout young players from elsewhere, develop them in Ligue 1, then sell them to richer clubs in England and Spain. Of the club’s top 10 biggest sales, Yoro and former Chelsea star Eden Hazard stand alone as the only players to have come through the club’s youth academy. Whereas players like Nicolas Pépé (signed for €18m, sold for €80m), Victor Osimhen (signed for €22.4m, sold for €77.5m) and Rafael Leão (signed for €20.2m, sold for 49.5m) were all scouted from neighbouring countries and developed in France before moving on elsewhere. In total Lille’s 10 most valuable sales cost the club just €93.2m in transfer fees, but earned the club €451m in sales. “The scouting has the most to do with the record sales,” adds Caroff. “Especially between 2017 and 2020, when the great mind of Luis Campos was at work to find gems, eventually putting the groundwork in for Lille’s 20/21 Ligue 1 title. The staff has changed since, but the club still has a reputation for being a transfer window specialist. Typically, the players they buy join for fees rarely more than €20m and they are typically aged 23 or younger. Which offers room for better resale of these players once they prove themselves in Lille.”  

However, Lille’s interest in scouting, developing and then selling players only works if the Ligue 1 side have viable buyers at the end of the process to pay the fees necessary to keep the cycle going. And while Lille have sold players to all corners of the European continent, there’s little doubt that English football takes a notable interest in any Lille player that begins to earn praise from the French press. No less than seven of the club’s top 10 biggest sales ever were to English clubs and, rather remarkably, 49% of the €747m the club have earned in transfer fees over the last 10 seasons have come from English cheque books. While Arsenal fans may not have forgiven Lille for selling them Pépé just yet, players like Hazard, Sven Botman, Amadou Onana, Gabriel Magalhães, Yves Bissouma and Lucas Digne certainly underline why Lille are one of the Premier League’s favourite shop windows to peer into and why the French club are so good at making money in the transfer window.