Angers had no money to sign strikers so turned to youth players. It worked

Deprived of their top scorer from last season and unable to sign a replacement, Angers did not have a choice but to turn to two 18-year-old strikers from their academy. Sidiki Chérif and Prosper Peter have shown that it should have been the only choice.

The season started with a win for Angers, but it was a win that brought more fear than hope. Esteban Lepaul scored the only goal of the game as they beat Paris FC. The Frenchman had been a revelation in the second half of last season, as his nine goals ensured safety for Ligue 1’s second lowest scorers. But Rennes were circling and he was gone by the end of August.

Angers scrambled for a replacement and they seemed to have found him. Rémy Labeau-Lascary had already posed with the Angers shirt and trained with his new teammates when the DNCG, French football’s financial watchdog, pulled the plug on the deal. Angers were unable to increase their wage bill, so he returned to Lens before hastily heading out on loan to Brest. A move for Steve Mounié fell through for the same reason. Unable to sign players, they had to look to their academy. “We are obliged to develop players,” Angers’ assistant manager Lamine Mbaye tells us.

It was a sliding doors moment, a blessing in disguise, as it meant that Chérif and Peter – two “endearing boys” in the words of Mbaye – had to be thrust into the limelight. The teenagers have scored six of Angers’ 10 league goals this season (three apiece). Mbaye says the pair share an “affinity” that has been formed over years and transcends the pitch.

Chérif’s chance came first. He made his debut at the age of 16 before injuries slowed his progress. “It was an experience that made him grow,” says Mbaye. “He realised what he was doing may not have been perfect, and far away from a top-level player, in terms of recovery, of work. When you get injured a third time, you become aware of lots of things. He has grown from those experiences. Maybe he needed that to understand certain things. I have always had big hopes for him because he made a big impact at youth level.”

The sentiment is shared by the Saumur FC manager, Julien Sourice, who coached Chérif at youth level. Sourice says it was a struggle to recruit the striker. “He wanted to stay with his friends, which I understood, because he was young, but he was so good and everyone wanted him,” Sourice tells us. Chérif was destined to move on to a Ligue 1 club quickly but he made a lasting impression on his former manager, who describes him as a “refreshing and carefree” centre-forward. “He is a player who brings the team up the field. He is vertical, he breaks through the lines and gains his metres for his teams. He has always scored goals. He goes forward like no one will stop him.”

Sourice says the characteristics he saw years ago were there in Chérif’s performance against Auxerre over the weekend. It was his run and cross that forced Clément Akpa to put the ball in his own net and hand Angers the lead; it was Peter who finished the job, scoring Angers’ second with the final whistle approaching. “They are two strikers who have a scent for goal,” says Mbaye, who worked with the duo at under-19s, reserve and now at senior level.

Angers players and staff celebrate after their 2-0 win against Auxerre. Photograph: Eddy Lemaistre/Icon Sport/Getty Images

Mbaye has been particularly impressed by the maturity of Peter’s performances: “He has surprised me by how he has adapted so quickly, which isn’t easy. To carry the team, to be the goalscorer of the team at 18, it isn’t easy.” The Angers assistant manager says the pair “complement” each other. Chérif likes to play out wide and “burst into space”, whereas Peter is “more of a central player”, a “pivot player” who is good in the air and likes to find spaces inside the box. He did just that on Sunday afternoon, showing his striker’s instinct by following in Lilian Raolisoa’s initial effort, which had been tipped on to the post.

The 2-0 win over Auxerre lifts Angers to 13th in Ligue 1, as they look to once again defy expectations and stave off the drop. Chérif and Peter will be crucial players if they are to reach that objective. And in the future they could be crucial to satisfying the club’s off-field needs too. Jean-Mattéo Bahoya, now at Eintracht Frankfurt, and Mohamed-Ali Cho, now at Nice, both left the club for considerable fees. Selling their academy products is not just a strategy at Angers, it is about survival; we understand that clubs in England, Spain and Germany are already showing interest in Chérif.

“We took a step into the unknown,” said Angers’ manager, Alexandre Dujeux, on Sunday. “But we didn’t know how high they could go.” Time will tell the heights Chérif and Peter can reach but we might not be asking that question had the club signed their top targets in the summer. Merci la DNCG!

Talking points

Paris Saint-Germain left it late to beat Lyon, just as they did last weekend, when they saw off Nice with the final kick of the game. João Neves, one of the shortest players on the pitch, headed in the late winner on this occasion as PSG won 3-2 at the Groupama Stadium. Luis Enrique’s side were pegged back twice and undone by two long balls over the top, the second scored by Ainsley Maitland-Niles, whose long-range chip caught out Lucas Chevalier, who had ventured into no man’s land. But much of the post-match discussion revolved around refereeing decisions, with the Lyon defender Nicolás Tagliafico shown a harsh second yellow just seconds before PSG’s 95th-minute winner. “PSG are the best team in Europe; they don’t need 16 players on the pitch and I’m not even counting the VAR,” said Lyon’s assistant manager Jorge Maciel. The game suggests PSG are not currently “the best team in Europe”.

João Neves celebrates after scoring PSG’s late winner in Lyon. Photograph: Franco Arland/Getty Images

Refereeing decisions were in the spotlight in Monaco, too. They were beaten 4-1 by Lens and have now registered back-to-back league defeats for the first time since October 2024. The game was decided in five frantic minutes before half-time: Wesley Saïd gave Lens a 2-1 lead before Folarin Balogun, who had earlier equalised from the penalty spot, was shown a very harsh red card. Seconds later, the player he had fouled, Mamadou Sangaré, burst through the Monaco defence to double Lens’ advantage and put the game out of sight. Monaco’s CEO, Thiago Scuro, made a rare appearance in the mixed zone after the match to denounce the refereeing performance, but his complaints only mask Monaco’s mediocrity against Lens. They have to react well after the international break to close the gap to the Champions League places.

This is an article by Get French Football News