Eighteen seconds off the bench
That is how long Mezian Mesloub needed for his first Ligue 1 goal. It came on 8 May against Nantes, Lens won 1-0, and the club finished the season second behind PSG for direct qualification to the Champions League.
He was 16. His father Walid Mesloub, who played for Lorient and Lens, watched the whole thing happen.
The attacking midfielder signed his first professional deal on 20 July. He came through La Gaillette and has worn the Lens badge for eight seasons.
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133 minutes, and a club in no hurry
Lens are handling him carefully. Four appearances this season across all competitions, one of them a start.
He sat and watched the French Super Cup win over PSG, then the 5-2 hammering of Auxerre. One minute against Strasbourg. Twenty-nine in the Champions League, enough to pick up an assist on his European debut. Forty-five against Le Mans, 58 against Monaco.
One assist, no goals. Nobody at the club seems bothered by that.
Three federations, one 16-year-old
Portugal got there first. Luis Freire called him into the Under-21 squad during this break, at 16 years and 10 months. A Bola has already run with “the new Yamal”.
The records feed the noise. Mesloub is the second-youngest Portuguese player to appear in a Champions League match, behind Dario Essugo, and the third-youngest called into a Portuguese youth side, behind Chalana and Diogo Costa.
Freire is trying to cool it down. “We tend to compare young players straight away and put the player at an enormous level. Mezian is only just starting to play for Lens,” the coach said.
Algeria are not walking away from this. La Gazette du Fennec reports the FAF has opened early contact with Walid Mesloub, and coach Brahim Hemdani should meet the family once the international break ends. France remain a third option in the background.
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