Rejected by Lorient and Montpellier, Thauvin reveals he was chasing clubs that ignored him

Florian Thauvin lifted the curtain on the behind-the-scenes of his return to France during the 2024-2025 season, revealing in a documentary about RC Lens that both Lorient and Montpellier had rejected him before he signed with the Sang et Or.

The 33-year-old France international confessed to picking up the phone himself twice to try to convince Laurent Nicollin, Montpellier’s president, to give him a chance. “I told him: ‘I’ll come for whatever salary you give me’,” he reports. Nicollin had seemed open, but the promised callbacks never came. “Once no response, twice no response. That hurt me,” Thauvin admits, still visibly wounded by the episode. The situation with Lorient was similar: he was the one reaching out to the Breton club, without getting a reply.

These closed doors make his Lens season all the more eloquent. With 14 goals and 10 assists, Thauvin contributed to Lens finishing second in Ligue 1 and winning the Coupe de France. “Life is giving me another chance. I’m on a mission,” he declares, moved to tears in the documentary.

The winger admits he did not anticipate such a warm welcome in the North. “A year or two ago, you have this guy everyone shuts the door on, nobody wants him,” he sums up, describing a period when his entourage had to knock on club doors themselves rather than receive offers.

After years spent in La Liga with Tigres and then in Serie A with Udinese, Thauvin needed a French club willing to bet on him. Lens took that risk; Lorient and Montpellier can now measure what they let slip away.