Johann Lepenant (21) has settled quickly into the FC Nantes first team following his loan move from Olympique Lyonnais this summer which has an undisclosed option to buy (thought to be in the region of €2.5 million).
The France U21 international had struggled for game time last season after picking up a long-term injury while representing his national side.This kept him out of Pierre Sage’s plans at Lyon when the manager first arrived, while fresh recruits in the winter transfer window meant that there was no role for Lepenant once he returned to the team
At Nantes, it has been a very different story, with Antoine Kombouaré relying heavily on the loanee as one of his key players in a campaign start that sees the club sat in 10th place. Lepenant was able to display his skillset with an excellent assist to help give Nantes the 2-0 lead against AS Saint-Étienne albeit the game would end 2-2
The midfielder picked up the ball from a throw-in close to the Saint-Étienne goal, he twisted and turned losing his marker before darting along the by-line skipping past two challenges before delivering his pass to Sorba Thomas (25).
It was an assist reminiscent of Karim Benzema (36) in Real Madrid’s 2017 Champions League victory over Atlético de Madrid in the semi-final, and social media was quick to spot this. However, in an interview with L’Équipe, Lepenant has laughed off the similarities.
“I thought it was ironic. I’m not at all like Benzema, so it made me laugh,” the former SM Caen man explained. “But it’s true that it looks like [his goal against Atlético]. But there are so many guys who can dribble, I don’t know how many…Look at Rayan [Cherki] for example, he does it every match.”
