Think of Mickaël Cuisance’s career: a promising Bayern talent, expected to make the leap with Venezia, then lost in the second tiers of Italy and Germany, before Lens unexpectedly came calling this summer, when the club were already among Ligue 1’s leading sides. End of the story? Not even close, because just a few weeks after arriving, in his first competitive game, the 27-year-old midfielder started in the French Super Cup against two-time reigning European champions PSG. Lens – runners-up last season after a superb campaign – won the game and the trophy thanks to a goal from the inevitable Flo Thauvin, while Cuisance played 65 minutes in midfield, keeping Zaire-Emery and Vitinha under control. He left to applause and, almost immediately, became the symbol of a transfer-market masterstroke: Lens had paid just €3.5 million for him. Chapeau.
The former Bayern man is perhaps the most striking case, but he is far from the only one in a very specific recruitment strategy pursued by Lens: buying low and getting the maximum out of players. Above all, the aim is to revive players whose potential was never really in doubt, but whose careers have somehow gone astray, leaving them well short of where they were expected to be. The latest name on the list is Jean-Clair Todibo, who West Ham paid €42 million for in 2025, only for the Hammers to be relegated less than a year later, at the end of a horror season that was disastrous for him individually before it became one for the team. It was exactly the kind of situation Lens had been waiting for, and a few days ago the two clubs shook hands on a deal that brings Todibo back to Ligue 1 on a straight loan.
So, even while pulling off a masterclass in club-building, Lens have managed, when you look at the figures, to compete with the giants of French football. More than that, they are now a step ahead of all the other outsiders who, every year, try to put a spoke in the wheels of an apparently invincible PSG. If the Super Cup is a good first taste of the season, we can expect another exciting battle at the top after last spring’s duel, especially because the club’s touch is visible even in the players who have become technical leaders of the side. Thauvin himself, already showing signs of a revival during his final spell in Udine, had previously gone through a long period of uncertainty; today he is more decisive than ever.
The same goes for Odsonne Édouard, Allan Saint-Maximin and Malang Sarr, all players who have, at one point or another, been written off as overrated, only to silence the criticism with goals and performances at the Bollaert-Delelis. There is clearly a risk in this kind of recruitment, but more often than not Lens have found it worth taking, especially in a transfer market where prices have become prohibitive. Betting on players who have lost their way and can therefore be picked up at a discount can turn out to be a very good deal; the essential thing, and not everyone has it, is an eye for the right profile at the right moment.
Lens study their potential signings, persuade them to come, then press the right buttons when it comes to motivation, offering them the image of a team built around collective redemption. It can change the atmosphere in the dressing room, the willingness to fight together and the desire to overturn the odds on the pitch, with the supporters’ enthusiasm doing the rest. A trophy like this one, then, certainly does not hurt. If even a player like Cuisance, something of an enigma not so long ago, needed only half a game to rediscover himself as a protagonist, the best may still be to come.