Cash-rich club could bag £35m as interest heats up amid Rangers links

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As links persist over the future of Rangers striker Alfredo Morelos Lille could be set to bank even more millions for one of their players.

The Ligue 1 club have banked an initial £53.3m (€60m) for Nigerian international Victor Osimhen’s sale to Napoli and a further £27m (€30m) from the sale of defender Gabriel to Arsenal.

These substantial deals also come after Arsenal signed winger Nicolas Pepe from Lille for a club-record fee of £72m last season.

Now, France U21 international Lille midfielder Boubakary Soumaré is the latest Les Dogues star who has been linked with a megabucks exit from Stade Pierre Mauroy.

Back in January the Sun reported that Soumaré rejected an eye-watering £35m move to Newcastle United, opting to stay with Lille instead.

The likes of Manchester United and Arsenal have also been linked, whilst a new report from Le10 Sport claims Premier League champions Liverpool and Serie A giants AC Milan are interested in the 21-year-old.

These mega-money deals are made all the more interesting by the notion that Lille have reached an agreement with UEFA over Financial Fair Play regulations.

As part of this, Lille can only post losses of so much and must give a proportion of their European competition prize money back to the European governing body.

But Lille must also break even on player transfers if they’re to register new signings for European competition.

This is especially relevant in the case of Morelos with Rangers wanting £20m for the Colombian firebrand and Lille as of yet only offering £16.25m [Daily Mail].

So far the club have raked in £80.3m in player sales with the £27m (€30m) transfer of Jonathon David from Genk standing as the only significant outlay of their transfer window so far.

Should Lille rake in anywhere near the £35m Soumaré is reportedly valued at that would still give them a substantial £88.3m net gain in the transfer market.