Coming off the bench in all three of his Africa Cup of Nations appearances for Morocco, Sofiane Boufal showed once again his ability with the ball in his feet.
That was already on display at Celta last season during his loan from Southampton, and while the Saints haven’t expressed a strong desire to sell the forward this summer, they wouldn’t stand in his way if the right offer came along.
This is what Foot Mercato are reporting on Thursday, as they claim the 25-year-old would prefer a return to France, where he originally made a name for himself at Angers and Lille before his move to St Mary’s.
Three clubs have already expressed some interest in his services, and those are Marseille, Nice and Bordeaux.
While the former of the three have been the most talked about, Foot Mercato explain no concrete move has been made by them just yet, which isn’t entirely a surprise seeing as they’ll need to sell a bit more than just Lucas Ocampos before being active on the transfer market.
That leaves the door open for the other two, with Nice a well-known admirer of the player, having already tried to sign him last year.
Southampton’s reported willingness to even listen to loan with a view to buy deals has also brought Bordeaux into the mix, as this would suit their more ‘limited’ budget than their competition’s.
The Premier League club would reportedly be ‘satisfied’ with a €10m offer, which would lead them to make a rather large loss on their original £16.8m expenditure from 2016.
Foot Mercato also claim a number of teams in Spain are keen on Boufal, including Celta, but it’s France the player is looking at for now.
