Ligue 1 Uber Eats clubs have completed their summer transfers, which included the arrival in France of Alexis Sanchez, Nicolas Pépé, Alexandre Lacazette, Loïs Openda and Vitinha, while Amine Gouiri, Jonathan Clauss and Gaëtan Laborde all moved but remained in Ligue 1 Uber Eats.
With stars, prospects, returnees and experienced internationals, Ligue 1 Uber Eats has recruited a varied and well-stocked squad this summer for the 2022-23 season. From Alexis Sanchez (OM) to Nicolas Pépé (OGC Nice), via Alexandre Lacazette (OL), Vitinha (PSG), Junya Ito (SdR), Arnaud Kalimuendo (SRFC), Jonathan Clauss (OM) and Loïs Openda (RCL), a host of big names have been signed.
Recruits from 26 different countries
First of all, by turning to foreign leagues.
In terms of international recruitment, Ligue 1 Uber Eats attracted Alexis Sanchez this summer, a world star from Inter, who made a successful debut for Olympique de Marseille. And OM have been particularly active on this front, recruiting nine players who were playing abroad last season, in addition to the permanent transfers of Pau Lopez, Cengiz Under and Mattéo Guendouzi, and the return on loan of Amine Harit in the final hours of the window. In total, the south-coast club signed four players linked to Serie A clubs (Sanchez, Jordan Veretout, Under and Lopez), four from the Premier League (Eric Bailly, Issa Kaboré, Nuno Tavares and Guendouzi), and two from La Liga (Luis Suarez and Ruben Blanco).
In total, clubs made their deals in 26 different countries, with England seeing the most players join Ligue 1 Uber Eats over the summer with 26, including four moves from the English leagues to OGC Nice (Pépé, Schmeichel, Bryan and Sorensen), returning players Alexandre Lacazette, Moussa Sissoko, Malang Saar, Brice Samba and Nicolas Pépé, and the arrival of LOSC's latest recruit, Andre Gomes. In the opposite direction, 14 top-flight players joined the Premier League this summer, including Lucas Paqueta, Idrissa Gueye, Boubacar Kamara, Sven Botman and Wout Faes.
Italy's league supplied ten of their players to French clubs in the summer, with the Portuguese and Belgian top flights providing seven each. Next came La Liga (six recruits), led by Carlos Soler (PSG), Maxime Gonalons (CF63) and Luis Suarez (OM), and the Bundesliga with 6 players: Corentin Tolisso (OL), Harit (OM), Mvogo (FCL), Breel Embolo (ASM), Nordi Mukiele (PSG) and Ronaël Pierre-Gabriel (RCSA). Then followed the Netherlands, Sweden and Russia, with four players each - like Caen youth academy product Alexis Beka Beka, who returned to France after an adventure at Lokomotiv Moscow. OGC Nice turned to the international arena by signing six players from foreign leagues (two from the Premier League, two from Serie A, one from Russia and one from Romania), including Aaron Ramsey.
The recruits come from:
England: 26 players
A.Lacazette (Arsenal/OL), N. Pépé (Arsenal/OGCN), A. Gomes (Everton/LOSC), M. Sissoko (Watford/FCN), M. Saar (Chelsea/ASM), B. Samba (Nottingham/RCL), N. Da Costa (Nottingham-AJA) Lees-Melou (Norwich-SB29), K. Schmeichel (Leicester-OGCN), T. Minamino (Liverpool-ASM), I. Kaboré (Man City/OM), E. Bailly (MU-OM), N. Tavares (Arsenal-OM), M. Guendouzi (Arsenal/OM), J. Rodon (Tottenham-SRFC), F. Balogun (Arsenal/SdR), J. Jeanvier (Brentford/AJA), J. Bela (Birmingham/CF63), A. Palaversa and M. Moreno (Man City/ESTAC), A. Sima and U. Eneme-Ella (Brighton/SCO), Y. Valery (Southampton/SCO), J. Bryan (Fulham/OGCN), M. Sorensen (Brentford/OGCN), M. Ilis (Southampton/ESTAC)
Italy: 10 players
A. Sanchez (Inter/OM), J. Veretout, P. Lopez and C. Under (AS Roma/OM), F. Ruiz (Napoli/PSG), M. Viti (Empoli, OGCN), A. Ramsey (Juventus/OGCN), A. Theate (Bologna/SRFC), A. Ounas (Napoli/LOSC), L. Agoumé (Inter/ESTAC)
Portugal: 7 players
Alexsandro (Chaves/LOSC), C. Mbemba (FC Porto/OM), F. Sacko (Vitoria/MHSC), Vitinha (FC Porto/PSG), N. Mendes (Sporting/PSG), J. Porozo (Boavista/ESTAC), I. Slimani (Sporting/SB29)
Belgium: 7 players
L. Openda (Club Brugge/RCL), F. Maouassa (Club Brugge/MHSC), J. Ito (Genk/SdR), E. Agbadou (Eupen/SdR), N. Borges (Genk/CF63), T. Didillon (Cercle Bruges/ASM), I. Ugbo (Genk/ESTAC)
OM the most active
In terms of nationality, Stade de Reims, Toulouse FC and ESTAC Troyes have put their faith in foreign players. Reims signedd Japanese international Junya Ito, Austrian Patrick Pentz, Ivorian Emmanuel Agbadou, Englishman Folarin Balogun and Norwegian Noah Holm, and have already signed players of ten different nationalities (Morocco, Senegal, Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden, Zimbabwe, Kosovo, Mali, Greece and France).
At Téfécé, lessons from past outward-looking transfer windows have been learned, as Les Violets have done their shopping in the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and finally Greece. ESTAC also had an exotic transfer period, signing an Ecuadorian (Porozo), a Swede (Fatah), a Dane (Bruus), a Colombian (Moreno) and a Pole (Lis) in addition to Ugbo (Canada) and Rony Lopes (Portugal), respectively already known at the club and in the championship.
As happens in every transfer window, some players have made their return to Ligue 1 Uber Eats. In addition to Tolisso and Lacazette, Pépé (OGCN) and Veretout (OM), others have also chosen a new adventure in France. These include Islam Slimani (SB29), Maxime Gonalons (Clermont), Adrien Hunou (SCO), Brice Samba (RCL), Adam Ounas (LOSC), Christopher Jullien and Faitout Maouassa (MHSC), for a total of 37 players.
Most active clubs: (including permanent transfers and excluding loan returns)
OM: 15 players
Angers SCO: 13 players
ESTAC Troyes: 12 players
OGC Nice: 11 players
LOSC: 11 players
AJ Auxerre: 10 players
Clermont Foot: 10 players
Gouiri and Laborde do-si-do
Secondly, French clubs have also sought to strengthen their ranks on the French market. As is the case every season, there have been numerous player movements among Ligue 1 Uber Eats clubs (53, including players who were playing in the top flight in 21-22). Among the most notable are those of Gaëtan Laborde and Amine Gouiri, who crossed paths between Stade Rennais FC and OGC Nice in the final hours of the window, international Jonathan Clauss, who remains among the elite at OM, and also Steve Mandanda (OM-SRFC), Renato Sanches (LOSC-PSG), Wahbi Khazri (ASSE-MHSC), Mohamed Bayo (Clermont-LOSC), Alexis Claude-Maurice (OGCN-RCL) without forgetting a few nuggets, such as Arnaud Kalimuendo (PSG-SRFC), Hugo Ekitike (SdR-PSG), Sofiane Diop (AS Monaco-OGC Nice) and Christopher Wooh (RCL-SRFC).
Upstairs downstairs
Finally, Ligue 2 BKT remains a source of players for the top flight, although the reverse is even more obvious with 61 players moving from a Ligue 1 Uber Eats club to one in the lower division. During this summer's window, several players took the lift to come up to Ligue 1 Uber Eats. Among the main ones, four arrived at Angers SCO (O.Camara, Abdelli, Y. Fofana and Salama), two "Normans" are at Olympique Lyonnais (Johann Lepenant and Saël Kumbedi), while the other main players are Jean Onana (from Bordeaux to Lens), Youssouf M'Changama (Guingamp to Auxerre), Alan Viriginius (Sochaux to Lille), Théo Sainte-Luce (Nîmes to Montpellier), Mahdi Camara (Saint-Etienne to Brest) and Isaak Touré (HAC to OM).
