Sports 1 August 2026

Sporting send Souleymane Faye to Lorient on loan with a €6.5m buy option

Souleymane Faye leaves Sporting for Lorient on loan, with a purchase option set at €6.5m and the French club covering the Senegal international's wages in full.

Souleymane Faye is off to Brittany. Sporting and Lorient have agreed a loan deal for the Senegalese attacking midfielder, with a purchase option set at €6.5m and the French club picking up his wages in full for the duration.

How much is the buy option on Faye?

€6.5m. The maths is easy to read: Sporting paid a little over six million to Granada in January, so triggering the option would return the investment with a thin but positive margin, and with no wage bill in between.

Why is Faye leaving Sporting?

Minutes. The 23-year-old arrived at Alvalade midway through last season and made nine appearances, far too short a run to establish himself in a competitive squad. A loan to Ligue 1, at a club where he should find space, is the standard route for a player this age who needs games rather than good training sessions.

For Sporting the deal clears a wage and keeps the door ajar: if Faye takes off in France the club does not lose the upside, because the option is fixed. If it does not work, he comes back and the decision simply moves a year down the road.

The move lands right on the eve of the new season — the Primeira Liga kicks off on 8 August with Sporting away at Estrela da Amadora, giving Rúben Amorim and the recruitment team only days to settle the rest of the squad. The official departure notice goes up on Sporting’s website.

By Vasco Almada

Image: NORMOTE / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sports 1 August 2026

Benjamin Mendy sold his World Cup trophy for €54,000 and shrugged off the backlash

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Sports 31 July 2026

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Sports 31 July 2026

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Sports 31 July 2026

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Sports 30 July 2026

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Sports 30 July 2026

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Sports 29 July 2026

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Sports 29 July 2026

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Panoramic view of the Estádio da Luz in Lisbon

Sports 28 July 2026

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Sports 28 July 2026

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Sports 28 July 2026

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Sports 26 July 2026

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Sports 25 July 2026

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Sports 25 July 2026

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