Lens one win away from first place in Ligue 1

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/12/2025 (270 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Northern France is having a moment. In the context of top-flight French football, it’s not every day, or year, or decade, that they get one. So, we’ll let them have it, and we’ll even raise a festive glass of cidre chaud. After all, Racing Club de Lens, the country’s second-most northern club, is about to enter the winter break atop Ligue 1.

More on Lens in a moment. First, it’s important to explain what we mean when we say “northern France.”

Essentially, we’re looking at the administrative regions along the Channel coast — Brittany, Normandy and Hauts-de-France — as well as Grand Est, as it borders both Belgium and Luxembourg. Eight of Ligue 1’s 18 teams call it home (we’re excluding Nantes, historically of Brittany but officially of Pays de la Loire), and between them they’ve won 12 titles.

That’s 12 titles, for the record, over 112 seasons. Not great.

The sport’s powerhouses hail from Paris and south of the Loire Valley. Paris Saint-German, winner of the previous four championships, has 13 in total. Marseille, Monaco and Nice, along the Mediterranean, have 22 combined. The inland trio of Saint-Etienne, Lyon and Bordeaux has 23.

That’s what we’re dealing with here, which is why it’s noteworthy to see three northern clubs among the top six as the current Ligue 1 campaign nears its halfway point. And that’s only part of the story.

Fourth-place Lille is on course to progress to the next round of the Europa League. Strasbourg leads the Conference League outright. The holder of the Ballon d’or, PSG’s Ousmane Dembélé, hails from Vernon in Normandy. And, more regionally, Amiens, Reims, Nancy, Guingamp, Avranches, Dieppe, Concarneau, Dunkerque and Bayeux have all advanced to the phase finale of the Coupe de France.

But let’s get back to that unlikely Ligue 1 leader, RC Lens.

Under no circumstances was the Pas-de-Calais club expected to contend for the title this season, and for two major reasons.

The first — and it’s one they share with the rest of the division — was because it was simply assumed that PSG would stroll to a fifth straight championnat. It could still happen, but a tough October that yielded just a single win from four matches opened the door to a title race, and Lens was one of the teams that stuck a foot inside.

The second reason was even more straightforward, or so it seemed in the summer. Lens was coming off an eighth-place finish and its best defender, Kevin Danso, had left to join Tottenham. A number of other key players, including goalkeeper Brice Samba and defender Abdukodir Khusanov, had departed in January.

Then there was the new manager, Pierre Sage, who had a grand total of 56 games coached in his Ligue 1 career.

In retrospect, it was an inspired appointment. The 46-year-old had been successful in his brief spell at Lyon, prior to which he’d worked as a scout, a technical director and assistant manager at a handful of lower-level clubs. He knew his ins and outs.

Tactically, he didn’t do anything revolutionary, and the switch to a three-man defence was more to compensate for Danso’s exit than anything else.

Sage’s gift — and clearly the result of knowledge gained from his variety of roles — is man-management. He understands his players; he knows how to help them extract the best versions of themselves.

Maybe it’s a particular partnership, like that of Malang Sarr and Samson Baidoo in defence, or Adrien Thomasson and Mamadou Sangaré in central midfield. Or maybe it’s recognizing which players have something to prove, and taking advantage of that chip on their shoulder.

Florian Thauvin falls into the latter category.

A one-time can’t-miss prospect, the attacker flopped at Newcastle, won a World Cup with France, made a bizarre move to Mexico, seemed to regain some form at Udinese, and is now excelling with Lens. Talk about your ups and downs.

Thauvin will also be 33 next month. He is smarter than he was, and he does more on the defensive side of the ball. There’s also the incentive of a France recall ahead of the 2026 World Cup.

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Mike McIntyre | On Sports

Thursdays

Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter.

Sign up for Mike McIntyre | On Sports

Sign Up

I consent to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies.

I consent to CASL agreement.

Sage insists his side remains a work in progress, which is true. He also values consistency over flair and is likely untroubled by analytics that would make other managers squirm.

On Sunday, Lens will host a Nice team (10:15 a.m., FuboTV) that hasn’t gained a point since October. Win, and the club will enter the new year in sole possession of first place.

This part of France hasn’t celebrated a championship since Lille’s victory in 2021. We have to go back a further 10 years to the next-most recent, and another 13 for the third-most. That’s three titles in 27 years.

If Lens can extend the north’s happy moment a few months more, it might just reset the streak to zero.

winnipegfreepress.com/jerradpeters