Lille have confirmed the signing of Saint Étienne forward Jonathan Bamba on a five-year-deal on a free transfer, which was confirmed earlier this week.
The 22-year-old is able to play across the front line but is more adept at playing on the right wing or as a right forward, playing the majority of his games there across his career, although a fraction more of his goals came from when he was deployed on the left wing.
The versatile forward has spent the entirety of his career on the books as Saint Etienne, joining the first team in 2015 as a youth player and embarking on loan moves to Paris FC, Sint-Truiden and Angers not so long ago before playing 34 times for Les Vert, scoring seven times and grabbing 10 assists in Ligue 1, with one goal and one assist more coming in the Coupe de France.
Lille CEO Marc Ingla said, “We are very happy to have Jonathan Bamba on board today. It is a player who was very much a wanted man by several clubs in France and across Europe. He chose LOSC and I thank him for that.”
“It’s good news. Today, we sign one of the best young players in Ligue 1, even though we are still looking to bring more players in. But that does not mean that we are leaving our goal, which is to have players on whom we can have a big future with.”
T.S.