PROFILE | A year of two halves for Golden Boy nominee Andy Diouf | OneFootball

This has been a year of two halves for Andy Diouf. We are yet to see the same player at RC Lens as we saw at Basel, but he is young, and he certainly has time on his hands.

Diouf left Rennes in search of first-team assurances. Moving away from France to join the Swiss Super League was a risk, however, it was one that paid off. He was a key figure in the Basel side that reached the semi-final of the UEFA Europa Conference League. That run was the perfect exposition for Diouf’s talents, and a nomination for the Golden Boy, ultimately won by Jude Bellingham, deservedly followed.

Whilst Diouf’s loan to Basel was made permanent at the end of last season, it quickly became evident that he wouldn’t remain with the Swiss club, and so it proved. Lens were in the market for a replacement for Saudi Arabia-bound Seko Fofana and Diouf seemingly fit the bill. Just one year after leaving Rennes, he returned to Ligue 1. It was a step up, and Diouf’s adaptation has been slower than desired and expected.

Diouf utilised sparingly in European competition

He is yet to earn the trust of manager Franck Haise, who has been reticent to field Diouf in European fixtures. Amidst Lens’ start-of-season struggles, Les Sang et Or opted to sign free agent Nampalys Mendy and the former Leicester City man has been favoured in the Champions League.

Diouf is arguably a victim of what was a poor transfer window from Lens. He certainly wasn’t Lens’ worst midfield signing. Stijn Spierings only lasted a few weeks at the club before returning to Toulouse, whom he had departed on a free transfer in the summer. Spierings was “poorly cast” and ill-suited to Lens style. Diouf isn’t a like-for-like replacement for Fofana, but that is seemingly what the hierarchy at the time wanted him to be. Grégory Thil, responsible for Diouf’s arrival has since stepped back from his role.

Whilst, like Spierings, Diouf may have been poorly cast, he is young enough – and certainly talented enough – to adapt, and adapt he must if this transfer is to be a success. Diouf will need to push on in 2024 in order to vaildate Lens’ investment and also to prove that his spell at Basel was not a flash-in-the-pan.

GFFN | Luke Entwistle