Everything You Need to Know About Loan Deals

Loaned players are unique assets to any squad. They can be the X factors that make a significant impact on their temporary teams. For clubs, loans offer a cost-effective way to bolster their roster. For the players, it’s a chance to get more playing time, build confidence, and, often, revive their careers. This dual benefit makes loan deals attractive to most teams, with some clearly preferring to be either the lending club or the host club.

The Popularity of Loan Deals

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a drop in the transfer market, including loans, during the 2021-22 season. However, with the help of support measures, the situation started to normalize in the summer of 2022. Over the past decade, the number of loan deals has seen a significant increase.

Number of loans involving Ligue 1 or Ligue 2 clubs:

2014-15: 146
2015-16: 183
2016-17: 177
2017-18: 207
2018-19: 205
2019-20: 216
2020-21: 225
2021-22: 77
2022-23: 242
2023-24: 225

Last season, Stade Brestois 29 exemplified the success of loan deals, benefiting from Julien Le Cardinal, Martín Satriano, Billal Brahimi, Kamory Doumbia, and Jordan Amavi. Amavi's crucial free-kick against Toulouse helped Brest secure their third-place finish.

Manager Éric Roy relied on six loan players to bolster the squad, which needed strengthening after narrowly avoiding relegation the previous season. This strategy has proven effective in the past, as the club initially brought in Mahdi Camara, Bradley Locko, and Lilian Brassier on loan before offering them long-term contracts.

Since their promotion to Ligue 1 in the 2019-20 season, Stade Brestois 29 has had a positive balance of loan deals, with 16 incoming and 13 outgoing. This trend continued over the last two seasons, with 10 players joining on loan, including six in the 2023-24 season. Even FC Nantes, which had the most loan players last season (seven), couldn't match Brest's numbers.

Clubs with the most loan players in the past five seasons (Ligue 1):

Stade Brestois 29: 16
OGC Nice and FC Nantes: 15
Olympique de Marseille: 14
Amiens SC: 13
FC Lorient: 11
RC Lens, Stade de Reims, RC Strasbourg Alsace, and ASSE: eight
Olympique Lyonnais, AS Monaco, and ESTAC: seven

Which clubs send the most players on loan?

AS Monaco and LOSC Lille have been the most active loaning players over the last five and ten seasons. This approach doesn’t stop them from receiving players on loan, either, with some notable successes, like Fabinho’s loan to Monaco in 2013-14.

Following closely, Paris Saint-Germain also ranks in the top five clubs that loan out the most players, similar to the cases of Xavi Simons at RB Leipzig and Ayman Kari at Lorient.

Here’s a look at the clubs that have loaned out the most players over the last five seasons in Ligue 1:

AS Monaco: 51
LOSC: 43
Stade de Reims: 35
PSG and FC Metz: 34
OL: 33
OM: 29
OGC Nice: 29
FC Lorient and Stade Rennais: 28
RC Strasbourg Alsace: 23

And over the last 10 seasons:

AS Monaco: 142
LOSC: 86
Rennes and PSG: 70
FC Metz: 57
OGC Nice: 56
OM: 54
OL, FC Lorient: 46
Toulouse: 41
Stade de Reims: 40
Bordeaux: 34
ASSE: 32

When it comes to receiving players on loan over the past ten seasons, the clubs leading the pack are:

OM: 38
AS Monaco: 33
OGC Nice: 25
LOSC, FC Nantes: 23
ASSE: 21
FC Metz, Amiens SC, Stade de Reims: 19
Toulouse: 16
FC Lorient: 15
Bordeaux: 14
Stade Rennais: 12
OL: nine
PSG: eight

For elite clubs like LOSC, AS Monaco, PSG, OL, and Stade de Reims, the common practice is to loan out some of their players before bringing others in. For example, in the 2019-20 season, Monaco loaned out 21 players and took in four, while LOSC loaned out 17 players without any incoming loans.

In 2022-23, Stade de Reims loaned out 14 players and received five in return. Last season, PSG loaned out ten players and only brought in one.

Where does Ligue 1 McDonald's stand in Europe?

Player loans were still rare at the start of the '80s and '90s, with only a handful happening 30 years ago. Some notable examples include Marseille’s Sonny Anderson in 1993 from Servette, Éric Cantona to Bordeaux, then Montpellier (1989-1990), Didier Deschamps also to Bordeaux (1990-91), and Abedi Pelé to LOSC (1988-90). The practice of loaning players became widespread in the 2000s, allowing training clubs to let their talents gain experience. Loans have also proven to be an alternative to revive players' careers.

Nowadays, temporary transfers are a key part of club strategies. It's not surprising to see an almost 20 percent increase in the number of loans among the five major European leagues between 2009 and 2019, per CIES Football Observatory. In Ligue 1, the number of loaned players per club was only two, compared to 4.87 in Serie A, showing that countries have different strategies.

Another report by the CIES Football Observatory in March 2023 reveals that Italy still has the highest percentage of loaned players in the world, with Serie B at 22.8 percent, followed by Serie A at 19 percent. Far behind are Ligue 1 at 11.2 percent and Ligue 2 at 11 percent, ranked 23rd and 24th, respectively.

What is the profile of a loaned player?

As of March 1, 2023, the average age of a loaned player in the 75 leagues studied worldwide was 24.4 years, with Ligue 1 falling within this average. Loans do not only involve footballers at the beginning of their careers, as the majority of loaned players, 56.6 percent, are between 20 and 24 years old. Only 27.9 percent of all loaned players are 21 years old or younger, while almost half, 47.9 percent, are 24 years old or older.

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