Five Ligue 1 gems who lit up the Premier League 🤩 | OneFootball

It's official as of this Tuesday evening: Rayan Cherki is a new Manchester City player!

Before him, other talented young players who started and made their mark in Ligue 1 left France for England. Some even conquered the Premier League for life. Here are five of them (re)introduced to you!

Eden Hazard

French champion in 2011 with Lille, Eden Hazard left Ligue 1 in 2012, just days after winning his second consecutive UNFP Player of the Season award. The Belgian joined Chelsea, where he spent seven seasons, playing 351 matches, scoring 110 goals, and winning six trophies, including two Premier Leagues and two Europa Leagues.

The Belgian is simply a Blues legend, an icon of contemporary Premier League football.

N'Golo Kanté

In 2015, at the age of 24, N'Golo Kanté quietly left Caen to join Leicester, a club expected to fight for survival in the 2015-2016 Premier League season.

Ten months later, Leicester and Kanté were English champions, to everyone's surprise! The 2018 World Cup-winning midfielder was one of the key players in this monumental achievement.

He signed with Chelsea the following season, leaving in 2023 after playing 269 matches, winning a Premier League title, and the 2021 Champions League.

Hugo Lloris

We just had to include him!

Hugo Lloris spent eleven years of his football career in the Premier League, in London, with Tottenham.

After breaking through at Nice, the former French national team captain joined Lyon, where he stayed for four seasons before heading to the Spurs.

Lloris played 447 matches for Tottenham, where he notably became the very first player in the club's history to reach 300 Premier League appearances. He too made the Premier League his own after coming from Ligue 1!

Samir Nasri

Samir Nasri, the little prince of Marseille. After four seasons at OM, his boyhood club, Nasri left Ligue 1 a season after winning the UNFP Young Player of the Year award for 2006-2007.

He signed with Arsenal in 2008, at age 21. After three years with the Gunners, Nasri signed for 30 million euros with Manchester City. At that time, he became the most expensive French player in history!

He spent six years at Man City, notably winning the English championship in 2012 and 2014. He remains one of the very best foreign players in the Premier League in the 21st century!

Thierry Henry

Of course!

Thierry Henry. Eight seasons at Arsenal, 226 goals scored in 370 matches, two Premier League titles including the 2004 season where the Gunners were crowned champions without losing a single league match...

For some, Thierry Henry is still considered the best foreign player in the entire history of the English championship!

Trained at Monaco, Titi spent a year at Juventus before joining London in 1999.

📸 Shaun Botterill - 2007 Getty Images

Not bad for a Farmers League, right?

Also read:

- Cherki’s emotional farewell to OL

- PSG’s official squad for the Club World Cup

- Modric’s punchline about Vitinha

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇫🇷 here.

📸 Catherine Ivill - 2018 Getty Images