Captain of the French U20 team during the recent Maurice Revello tournament in Toulon, Matthis Abline is attracting envy. Author of a good end to the season under the orders of Antoine Kombouaré (4 goals in L1 in the last 7 matches), the 21-year-old striker has no shortage of interest on the transfer market.
Nantes, where he was on loan for the 2023-2024 financial year, had decided to exercise the purchase option of 6 million euros three weeks ago but Rennes, where he is under contract until 2026, did exercise his buyout clause by paying €2 million to the Canaries to keep his player at least occasionally. Because the Breton club is not really counting on him for next season and is convinced that they can sell him for much more this summer.
Nantes has not said its last word
Stade Rennais was perhaps not mistaken in its calculation, since other candidates have positioned themselves in recent weeks, including Strasbourg. According to our information, the Alsatian club, pushed by its sports director Loïc Désiré and coach Patrick Vieira, has checked the scorer’s name in the list of attackers it would like to recruit.
The track is all the more serious as Strasbourg belongs to the American consortium BlueCo, also owner of Chelsea which already came to Rennes last summer with the signing of midfielder Lesley Ugochukwu. Stade Rennais knows the interest of the Franco-English tandem for its player and gives itself time to see the turn that the negotiations may take.
At the same time, Nantes came back with a proposal of 8 million euros which does not yet meet the expectations of neighboring Rennes.
