As always, the last day of the summer transfer window offered its share of twists and turns. France U21 striker Amine Gouiri signed a five-year deal with Stade Rennais FC, while Rennes' Gaëtan Laborde moved in the other direction to sign for OGC Nice on a four-year deal. In this de facto swap between two established Ligue 1 Uber Eats strikers, Gouiri will be reunited with Bruno Genesio, his coach at Olympique Lyonnais (2017-19), while OGC Nice reform the Andy Delort-Gaëtan Laborde duo that was so prolific at Montpellier a couple of seasons ago.

Also at Nice, Brentford's 23-year-old Danish centre-back Mads Bech Sörensen has arrived on loan until the end of the season. A left-footed central defender, Sörensen, who is under contract with the English club until June 2023, has this season made three Premier League appearances, all as a substitute. He has spent a total of 18 minutes on the pitch. After the arrival of 28-year-old English left-back Joe Bryan from Fulham, Sörensen is the second defender to join OGC Nice on loan from the English top flight in two days.

In the Rennes ranks, in addition to Amine Gouiri, Lens centre-back Christopher Wooh has signed a four-year contract with the Breton club, which will have an even younger squad this season than last time around. Wooh, who was came up through the academy and senior team at Nancy, is 20 years old and made his Ligue 1 Uber Eats debut last season with Lens, where he had already been recruited to compensate for the departure of Loïc Badé to Rennes. Bruno Genesio's side have recruited three new centre-backs in recent weeks: Joe Rodon (24), Arthur Théate (22) and Christopher Wooh.

Carlos Soler, PSG's sixth recruit

Spanish attacking midfielder Carlos Soler has signed a five-year contract with Paris Saint-Germain from Valencia. Soler (25) is the sixth summer signing for the French champions after midfielders Vitinha, Renato Sanches and Fabian Ruiz, young French striker Hugo Ekitike and French defender Nordi Mukiele. Soler is a versatile attacking midfielder, capable of playing as a playmaker or on the flank, and was the captain at Valencia, where he came up through the academy and spent his entire career thus far. The Spanish international (ten caps) has scored 36 goals in 226 appearances for Valencia in all competitions, according to statistics reported by his new club.

Amine Harit is back at OM! The Moroccan attacking midfielder has been loaned out by Schalke 04 to Marseille, where he played last season. OM said in a statement that the loan was accompanied by an option to buy. Harit, who is 25, is Marseille's 12th signing of the summer. Last season he scored five goals and provided four assists in 34 games in all competitions. "Now that Amine is back home, the club that came second in the 2021-22 season will benefit from his vast experience and knowledge of the environment to quickly integrate and offer an additional offensive solution within Igor Tudor's squad," OM noted of their latest recruit.

In the north, attacking midfielder Adam Ounas has signed a two-year contract with LOSC from Serie A side Napoli, with an option for a further year. The 25-year-old, who came up through the Bordeaux academy before being loaned to Nice in the 2019-20 season, is back in the French league. Capable of playing on either wing or as a second striker (but more comfortable on the right), he strengthens a squad limited in attacking options, which should help coach Paulo Fonseca in hiss desire to have more competition in the squad. "Everyone in Europe knows that Lille is one of the biggest clubs in France, where they play a type of football that I like, where they play well with the ball. I was immediately attracted to it," said the player on LOSC's official website.

With just a few minutes to go before the end of the window, LOSC have made their second signing official with the arrival of Everton's Portuguese midfielder Andre Gomes on a season-long loan. The 29-year-old, who has had spells with Valencia and Barcelona, won Euro 2016 with his country and has played in 38 European club matches. In Lille's midfield, he will be competing with two near-namesakes: Benjamin André and Angel Gomes. And he will play under compatriot Paulo Fonseca, a coach who has been pushing club management to strengthen this sector. "I hope to help the group, which already has a lot of quality, by bringing in my experience. The president and Paulo Fonseca have convinced me to join the project," explained LOSC's latest recruit.

Ganago at Nantes, reinforcements at Toulouse

After a very successful start to the season, RC Lens made the most of the last few hours of the transfer window to register a new arrival. After the surprise extension of Seko Fofana, RCL have done another piece of good business for their midfield with the arrival of Jean Onana. The box-to-box/defensive midfielder has signed a contract with the club until 2027. After starting out at LOSC, it was with Girondins de Bordeaux that the Cameroon international made his name, with 23 appearances (three goals and two assists) in Ligue 1 Uber Eats last season.

FC Nantes have landed coup with the transfer of Ignatius Ganago. The 23-year-old striker, who is also a Cameroonian international, will be joining his third top-flight club after OGC Nice and RC Lens. Nantes' new number 14, who has played 108 games in Ligue 1 Uber Eats, scoring 18 goals and providing 2 assists, has signed a four-year contract in the west of France. Meanwhile, in the Hérault region, Montpellier have completed the recruitment of goalkeeper Bingourou Kamara (25) from Strasbourg to compensate for the long-term injury to Dimitry Bertaud, understudy to Jonas Omlin. The length of the Senegalese international's contract has not been announced.

Toulouse have turned to Greece to find a new midfielder. After Efthymios Koulouris, Theocharis Tsingaras will become the second Greek player to play for Toulouse FC. The 22-year-old former U21 international is on loan from PAOK Salonika and will strengthen the midfield at Toulouse FC. He is not the only new recruit for the promoted club, as Veljko Birmancevic joined from Malmö FF (Sweden) late in the evening. "'Birma' has added to Philippe Montanier's attacking line-up after the arrivals of Zakaria Aboukhlal and Thijs Dallinga this summer," said TFC of the player who scored 27 goals in 71 games for the Swedish club.

Three recruits at Lorient. AS Saint-Etienne's U20 international attacking midfielder Adil Aouchiche has signed for Les Merlus on a three-year deal. The 20-year-old played 77 games, 36 as a starter, in all competitions (2 goals, 10 assists) for Les Verts, including two Ligue 2 BKT games at the start of this season, after playing three (one goal) with PSG, his boyhood club, in 2019-20. Meanwhile, FC Lorient have also announced the arrivals of striker Siriné Doucouré (20, Châteauroux) and goalkeeper Vito Mannone (34, AS Monaco).

Two recruits at Angers and ESTAC

Ibrahim Amadou returns to SCO. The French-Cameroonian has signed a one-season contract with Gerald Baticle's side after playing for FC Metz in the second half of last season. The 29-year-old midfielder, who has also played for AS Nancy Lorraine and LOSC, made a good impression in Angers during his loan spell in 2020-21 (24 Ligue 1 Uber Eats games). SCO's other deadline-day recruit is Frenchman Yan Valéry (23). The right-back, who was playing for Southampton, has signed a four-year contract.

Eager to strengthen their attack following the departure of El Bilal Touré, Stade de Reims have reached an agreement with Rosenborg BK for the loan with option to buy of Noah Holm. The 21-year-old striker has scored six goals and provided seven assists in 30 appearances for the Norwegian club. Just over 100 kilometres from Reims, ESTAC Troyes have bolstered their squad by taking on two loans: goalkeeper Mateusz Lis (25) from Southampton and midfielder Lucien Agoumé (20) from Inter Milan. Agoumé, who came up at FC Sochaux-Montbéliard, is on loan for the second time in a row in the top flight, having played 27 Ligue 1 Uber Eats games for Stade Brestois 29 last season.

>> TRANSFERS: All the summer moves

(Photo: Stade Rennais FC