Outpoll | 🚨 Seven years on... here is Ligue 1’s player of the month

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🚨 Seven years on... here is Ligue 1’s player of the month

🚨 Seven years on... here is Ligue 1’s player of the month

4 days ago7 min read5 comments

The narrative of Florian Thauvin’s career reads like a footballing epic, a testament to resilience and refined skill that culminated this Sunday morning with the UNFP awarding him the Ligue 1 Player of the Month for September, a full seven years after his last such triumph. For RC Lens, Thauvin wasn't merely good during this period; he was transcendent, a force of nature whose performances—a blend of creative vision and clinical finishing reminiscent of a French David Beckham in his prime—propelled the club and earned him a sensational recall to the French national team, where he promptly reminded everyone of his quality by finding the net for Les Bleus.This latest accolade, won decisively with 46% of the vote, pipping PSG's metronomic midfielder Vitinha (42%) and the dynamic Romain Del Castillo of Stade Brestois (12%), marks the fourth time Thauvin has lifted this particular trophy, placing him in an elite echelon of consistent excellence. To truly grasp the magnitude of this moment, one must delve into the analytics: his expected assists (xA), key passes per 90 minutes, and progressive carries in the final third during September were not just team-leading metrics but placed him in the 95th percentile across Europe's top five leagues, numbers that draw favourable comparisons to the legendary Zinedine Zidane's ability to dictate play from the wing.In the storied history of Racing Club de Lens, he now stands as only the fourth player to ever claim this honour, directly succeeding the prolific Loïs Openda, who won it in April 2023, a passing of the torch that signals Lens's serious ambitions to challenge the Parisian hegemony. This award is more than a monthly prize; it's a redemption arc, a story of a player who ventured abroad, faced adversity, and has returned to his roots not as a faded star, but as a more complete, intelligent, and devastatingly effective footballer, a lesson to every young player that career trajectories are not linear but are defined by perseverance and an unwavering belief in one's own ability. The broader context here is a Ligue 1 that is increasingly competitive, where the narrative is no longer solely dominated by PSG, and Thauvin’s resurgence at Lens embodies this shift, proving that with the right system and belief, a team from the north can produce football and players worthy of the highest acclaim, setting a fascinating precedent for the rest of the season as the title race heats up.