Lens and Lille ranked among Europe’s elite for player sales | OneFootball

Business is booming if you own one of these two Ligue 1 sides located in Northern France.

In its latest report, the International Centre for the Study of Sport (CIES) ranked the top teams in Europe regarding capital gains. The rankings are based on how well clubs across Europe have done in sales on the transfer market over the last five seasons.

RC Lens were the highest-ranked French side on the list, turning in €134m in profits over that span. Among their big moves were the sales of Abdukodir Khusanov (21) and Neil El-Aynaoui (24). Khusanov was bought for €450,000, with the club selling him for €40m, not including bonuses, to Manchester City. El-Aynaoui came to Lens for a fee of €600,000 and left for €23.5m to AS Roma.

Lille OSC rounded out the top 10 list in 10th with capital gains of €112m. Unsurprisingly, Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt were the top club in Europe for capital gains, selling some players for massive returns.

Randal Kolo Muani (26) and Omar Marmoush (26) arrived on free transfers to them, with the former bought by Paris Saint-Germain for €90m and the latter by Manchester City for €75m.

Italy had the most clubs in the top 10 on the list, with Lecce earning €113m to rank ninth, while Udinese have pocketed €120m for the seventh spot, and Atalanta has raked in €150m for fourth. Udinese sold Florian Thauvin (32) to Lens over the summer for €6m.

GFFN | Joel Lefevre