PROFILE | Bradley Locko – Reims’ loss is Brest’s gain | OneFootball

It didn’t take long for Bradley Locko to make the €500,000 transfer fee Reims received from Brest look extremely paltry. The left-back had spent six months on loan in Brittany before Brest made the deal permanent ahead of the 2023/24 season.

His loan did not promise too much excitement. Locko had struggled to displace Jean-Kévin Duverne from the team as he made only seven appearances and started only two of those games. However, head coach Eric Roy and sporting director Grégory Lorenzi had seen enough.

Duverne would leave in the summer at the end of his contract and join rivals FC Nantes allowing for Locko to slot seamlessly into the team. It was clear Brest had brought Locko in with succession planning in mind, and yet, even they must have been surprised by how well this transfer worked out.

Locko started in all but one game for Brest in the 2023/24 season and quickly earned plaudits as he became a key figure in one of the league’s meanest defences. The club conceded (alongside Lille) the second-fewest amount of goals in the league and a lot of that had to do with Locko’s ability to lock out his opposite number.

With Locko in the defence, Brest would make history. The club finished in 3rd place in the league (beating their previous best of 8th in the 1986/87 season) and in doing so won automatic qualification to the Champions League meaning that Les Pirates would be in Europe for the first time in their 74-year existence.

Brest miss out on payday… for now

Locko was earning recognition, not least from his country. The left-back was picked to be part of Thierry Henry’s France U23s that would compete in the Paris Olympics. The defender would play a part in helping Les Bleuets win their first Olympic medal in football since the 1984 Summer Games when the nation reached the final (losing to Spain 5-3 after extra time).

It was inevitable that transfer interest in the defender would arise and Brest looked to turn their €500,000 spend into an eye-watering profit. Clubs across Europe lined up to secure Locko’s services and reports suggested that Brest were going to net €15 million with Nottingham Forest on the verge of securing his signature.

However, a move would break down in mid-August when Brest announced that Locko had ruptured his Achilles tendon during a training session. It would mean that while the defender would remain in the North of France. He has not played a single minute of the 2024/25 campaign. Still, as the club co-president joked to Le Télégramme “We will have [him] for the Champions League final in Munich.”

GFFN | Nick Hartland