Lille became experts at selling on players for a huge profit and successfully replacing them with up-and-coming talent during Luis Campos’s time as director of football of the northern club. Botman was one of the last examples of the Portuguese transfer guru’s eye for talent - he was signed in the last close season from Ajax as a replacement for Brazilian centre-back Gabriel Magalhães, sold to Arsenal for an initial €26 million.

Botman arrived at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy on loan in late July but the move was made permanent less than two months later after he wasted no time in making an impact in Christophe Galtier’s side. He played in every minute of Lille’s first 20 Ligue 1 Uber Eats games this season, forming a formidable partnership alongside veteran captain José Fonte to help LOSC emerge as title contenders. Botman has also helped his new club qualify for the last 32 of the Europa League, in which they will play - as luck would have it - his old club Ajax in February.

Unknown to French fans prior to this season, Botman also left Ajax without getting his chance in their first team. Now, having just turned 21, he is one of Europe’s brightest defensive prospects. Read on to find out more about his rise….

Back story:

Sven Botman was born in Badhoevedorp, just outside Amsterdam, on January 12, 2000. He was just nine when he joined Ajax, and then worked his way up through their youth system until the 2018-19 campaign, when he was a regular for the club’s reserve team, Jong Ajax, in the Dutch second division. He partnered Perr Schuurs in the heart of the Jong Ajax defence, but while Schuurs - barely seven weeks his elder - went on to break into the Amsterdam giants’ first team, Botman was allowed to leave on loan.

His next stop was SC Heerenveen, the proud club from the northern province of Friesland. In his breakthrough top-flight season, Botman helped Heerenveen to mid-table in the Eredivisie by the time the campaign was stopped in mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic, never to restart. Botman played in all 26 Eredivisie games and had done enough to convince Ajax to extend his contract until 2023. However, he had also done enough to convince Lille - on the look-out for a new left-sided central defender - to take a chance on him.

In Lille, in French Flanders, Botman is not far from home and adapting to his new club has not been difficult, but few could have expected him to settle in quite so quickly. “When Luis came to me and told me about the player it didn’t take me long to see what he could do, because we knew he would be good in the air, on the ground and with the ball,” said Lille coach Christophe Galtier last week as he reflected on Botman’s impressive start at his new club.

Style of play:

Galtier’s comments sum it up. Botman is tall, very tall, at 1.95m. He is therefore excellent in the air but he is also assured on the ball and excellent in the tackle. When asked if he had seen such an exciting defensive talent at such a young age, Galtier compared Botman to Kurt Zouma, the France international he brought through at AS Saint-Etienne and who is now at Chelsea.

Botman, though, is not a big talker, letting skipper Fonte be the vocal one in the Lille back line. "In football, you have leaders who are vocal, ones who gesticulate and ones who shake the team up. I have a few of those," said Galtier earlier this season. "But you also have people who lead by example, through their performances, and it's true that Sven is emerging as this type of leader."

Current campaign:

Botman joined Lille on loan at the end of July and made his Ligue 1 Uber Eats debut less than a month later when LOSC kicked off their campaign with a 1-1 draw against Stade Rennais FC. His move was made permanent in late September, when Lille paid a reported €8 million fee to Ajax to tie Botman down on a contract which is understood to run until 2025. He has gone on to become an immovable object in Galtier’s line-up, playing in every game in the league and the Europa League. In his first Ligue 1 20 games, alongside Fonte and in front of goalkeeper Mike Maigan, Lille have let in just 15 goals and kept nine clean sheets. He also featured in the team that stunned AC Milan 3-0 at San Siro. Needless to say his performances have already led to rumours of a big-money transfer abroad.

What you may not know:

Botman’s teammates at Jong Ajax in 2018-19 included left-back Mitchel Bakker, who is now at Paris Saint-Germain, and striker Kaj Sierhuis, who was loaned to Groningen midway through that campaign but is now also in France, at Stade de Reims. Sergiño Dest, the United States international right-back now at Barcelona, also played alongside Botman in that team.

International career:

Botman represented the Netherlands at various age-group levels but it was only after moving to Lille that he was called up to the Dutch Under-21 squad for the first time at the beginning of this season. His debut came in an Under-21 European Championship qualifier against Norway in Almere in September. He also played in subsequent qualifiers against Gibraltar and Cyprus, renewing his partnership with Schuurs in comfortable wins as the Jong Oranje sealed qualification for the finals which will be played later this year.

In the meantime, though, Botman has earned his first call-up to Frank de Boer’s full national side. Profiting from the absence of Virgil van Dijk to a serious knee injury, Botman was named in the squad for the UEFA Nations League matches against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Poland in November. He did not feature in either game, but it will be interesting to see if De Boer names him again for the start of the Oranje’s 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign in March, or whether he will be allowed to join the Under-21s for their Euro campaign.

What he said:

“I grew up there. It was like a second home for me. Now I am happy at Lille but Ajax is the club who made me who I am now.”

On starting his career at Ajax

“The Premier League is a dream. But as a youth player of Ajax, you really only have one dream: to succeed in the (Johan Cruyff) Arena. I seemed to get further away from that when I went to Heerenveen, but my development there has taken me closer to that goal."

To De Telegraaf when he was at Ajax and being linked with a move to England

What they said:

“When Luis (Campos) came to me and told me about the player it didn’t take me long to see what he could do, because we knew he would be good in the air, on the ground and with the ball.”

“I had Kurt Zouma who was playing there for Saint-Etienne before he turned 17. I hope Sven can go on to have a career like Kurt.”

"Like so many players that come out of the Ajax academy, he's had a very good football education."

Lille coach Christophe Galtier on his new defensive star

“Sven is a strong boy who has been trained well by Ajax and hopefully will get even better with us.”

Heerenveen coach Johnny Jansen reacting to Botman joining his club on loan in 2019.

>> PROFILE: Sven Botman