While the football planet is agitated and watches the fate that will be reserved for Cristiano Ronaldo, eager to leave Manchester United but still without a suitor to his liking, the Ligue 1 teams are trying to sniff out the right shot until the final whistle of this summer transfer window.
From the Parisian juggernaut to the bottom of the table, everyone hopes to achieve the good deal in a ritual not always mastered by the main actors of this day like no other, the agents and the sports directors.
In Paris, most of the work has already been done by football adviser Luis Campos, responsible for regenerating the workforce of the champions of France and settling the Mauricio Pochettino era, replaced this summer on the bench by Christophe Galtier.
After Kylian Mbappé’s contract extension with great fanfare until 2025, PSG have signed up midfielders Vitinha, Renato Sanches and Fabian Ruiz, defender Nordi Mukiele and striker Hugo Ekitike and hope to close their deal with an attacking element (Carlos Soler) and a defender, still dreaming of Milan Skriniar (Inter Milan).
But it is above all in the sales department that Paris has distinguished itself for once. Antero Henrique, former sports director of the club mandated to find a base for the many players deemed undesirable, has almost emptied the “Parisian loft” (Kehrer, Herrera, Wijnaldum, Dina-Ebimbe, Areola, Paredes), while waiting to settle definitely the cases of Idrissa Gueye, Julian Draxler and Mauro Icardi.
Marseille has also been very active and the new technician Igor Tudor, appointed after the surprise resignation of Jorge Sampaoli, can rely on the nice moves made by the management and the president Pablo Longoria (Alexis Sanchez, Jordan Veretout, Jonathan Clauss, Eric Bailly, Nuno Tavares).
The Croatian intends to achieve one last good deal with “a player behind the attackers”, the track of the Ukrainian Ruslan Malinovskyi (Atalanta Bergamo) seems complicated.
While waiting to find this rare bird, OM, in need of cash, took advantage of this transfer window to downsize the workforce thanks to a series of loans (Arkadiusz Milik, Kevin Strootman, Paul Lirola, Luis Henrique), like PSG , and wants to complete this list with Bamba Dieng or Duje Caleta-Car.
The Mediterranean neighbor, OGC Nice, has not been idle either. After the departure of Galtier in Paris and the signing of Lucien Favre, the club owned by the petrochemical giant Ineos offered itself a nice facelift with eight new players, including Nicolas Pépé, Aaron Ramsey, Kasper Schmeichel and Sofiane Diop, just landed Monday from Monaco.
A last-minute move could occur at the center-forward position since an exchange is envisaged between Amine Gouiri, 22, and Rennais Gaëtan Laborde, six years his senior.
Lyon, which entered the orbit of American businessman John Textor, has a priori finished shopping.
The club, still chaired by Jean-Michel Aulas and which is seeking to revive after a pitiful season (8th in L1, no European qualification), has above all distinguished itself by repatriating two glorious former players, Alexandre Lacazette (Arsenal) and Corentin Tolisso (Bayern Munich), and by sending the Brazilian Lucas Paqueta to West Ham for more than 61 million euros.
