Definitely, RB Leipzig will quickly become the bane of French club presidents. After having recovered Christopher Nkunku (PSG) and Mohamed Simakan (Strasbourg) in recent seasons with a more than satisfactory result, the German club has decided to launch a real raid on two of the biggest talents in Ligue 1, namely Loïs Openda (RC Lens) and Castello Lukeba (OL). For these two players, who burst onto the screen in L1 last year, Leipzig made several firm offers with the arguments of participation in the Champions League and the possibility of benefiting from a springboard for the biggest European clubs. For the Belgian striker, author of 21 goals last season in the league, the residents of the Red Bull Arena offered a first, then a second offer of 30 M€ + 5 M€ bonus. For the great hope of Olympique Lyonnais, it is an offer slightly lower than 30 M€ which has been proposed.
But the two French clubs resisted well by refusing to give in to the German club, arguing, rightly, that the two players were worth much more than that. A short-lived lull for RC Lens and OL. On the one hand because the two players, selected for the Euro Espoirs in Romania and Georgia, wanted to finish the competition before being fixed on their fate, and on the other hand because the club having finished third in the Bundesliga last year, did not yet have the necessary surface area to accelerate in these files.
RC Lens received a third offer for Openda
The Euro being over for the two players, serious things will be able to resume. Especially since Leipzig is now in a position of strength financially speaking. While the specter of financial fair play hung over the club coached by Marco Rose, the sale this weekend of Dominik Szoboszlai, associated with that of Christopher Nkunku to Chelsea, tipped the balance of the FPF in positive despite the arrivals several recruits, such as Slovak striker Benjamin Sesko, Austrian midfielder Nicolas Seiwald (Salzsburg) and attacking midfielder Christoph Baumgartner (TSG Hoffenheim) to replace the new attacking midfielder for the Reds. And again, the upcoming sale of Joško Gvardiol to Manchester City for a hundred million euros should further extend the financial surface of the RBL in the summer transfer window. Enough to very seriously accelerate the Loïs Openda file, who has clearly announced his wish to join the German club.
A third offer has been made as indicated by the general manager of Sang et Or, Arnaud Pouille, at a press conference on Monday. “We received a third offer. The first 2 offers did not require analysis. With Loïs, the project is to keep it, and for it to be next season. Leipzig revolves around him. They have their economic view on a potential transfer, we have ours. When you don’t put a player on a desired or considered transfer list, you generally don’t put a price. Then there are psychological barriers. As we did for Christopher Wooh on the last day of the last transfer window, all three of us have to settle down (with Franck Haise and Grégory Thil, editor’s note). We don’t want to trade but sometimes you just have to be reasonable. Discussions will therefore continue and the amount of the offer could be close to €40 million. An amount that would approach the requirements of RC Lens, which wants between 45 and 50 M €. The next few hours will therefore be decisive for a file that is ultimately more advanced than that of Castello Lukeba…
An offer expected for the weekend for Lukeba
And for good reason. OL’s defensive rock, which achieved a high-flying Euro Espoirs with Les Bleuets, is still far from having left the Rhone city. Well aware that the performances of their n°4 in Romania/Georgia have caught the eye of several top European teams and that Leipzig have new financial resources, OL are going to raise the stakes. It will therefore be necessary to pay much more than the initial offer from Leipzig to bend the 8th in the last championship. This file, ultimately more complex than that of Loïs Openda, could take a few more days to settle, especially since the German formation has other defensive alternatives in the event of failure of the Lukeba file. According to our information, a new offer should arrive at the office of the Lyon management by the end of the week.
