Loan fee paid, 7m option on the table
Stade Rennais have wrapped up their transfer business with Boulaye Dia. The Senegal striker joins from Lazio on a paid loan worth 2 million euros, with a 7 million buy option attached. He is the club’s ninth and final summer signing.
The deal says plenty. Rennes have kept an exit route open. At 29, Dia is not a bet on the future so much as an instant fix for the hole left by Breel Embolo through the middle.
The Bretons had chased this type of forward for weeks. They had looked at Odsonne Edouard before switching their focus to the Senegal international.
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What Loic Desire wants from the Senegalese forward
Rennes sporting director Loic Desire set out the thinking in the club statement. “He offers a profile we did not necessarily have, complementary to that of Esteban Lepaul, and that will in particular allow Eliezer Mayenda to move to a wing,” Desire said.
Translated: Dia is not here to replace Lepaul, he is here to give Franck Haise more options. Power, work rate, pressing, flexibility. The coach can use him as a lone striker or pair him with Lepaul in a different setup, while shifting Mayenda out wide.
It is the sort of flexibility Rennes have not had since Embolo left.
Five years after Reims
Dia is back in Ligue 1 five years after leaving Reims. Since then, he has spent four seasons in Italy, first at Salernitana and then at Lazio. Before that, a spell at Villarreal took him into the Champions League.
Few forwards in the division can match that blend of European experience and familiarity with French football. That is exactly what Rennes went looking for.
Dia kept his message simple. “I am very happy to be back in Ligue 1. I came here to serve the team,” he said after signing, while adding that he hopes the big-stage experience he has built in international competition can help the squad.
Now the only question is how long Haise needs to find the right balance between his two No 9s.
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