Selling Nicolas Pépé, Thiago Mendes and Rafael Leao for hefty fees this summer, Lille don’t have to sell anymore, but if the right offer comes along, they won’t stand in the player’s way if he wants to leave.
That’s what happened with a reported €40m bid from Wolverhampton Wanderers for Boubakary Soumaré, who only has a handful of first-team starts in his burgeoning career, but has impressed at international level.
According to L’Equipe, This deal was reportedly put together by Jorge Mendes and the Lille technical advisor Luis Campos, but the midfielder turned down the chance to go to Molineux, despite members of the club trying to push him to accept it.
Soumaré is reportedly ‘not interested’, wanting to play in the Champions League with the Ligue 1 side after they finished second behind Paris Saint-Germain.
Despite making 39 appearances for Lille’s first-team in all competitions as a 20-year-old, he has only started 13 of them, as Christophe Galtier slowly but surely ensures he doesn’t rush him.
