On March 5, M'Baye Niang scored in the semi-final of the Coupe de France in the Chaudron (2-1).

He will ultimately not be from Saint-Etienne this season.

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PHILIPPE DESMAZES / AFP

It was long believed that the best coup of the transfer window in Saint-Etienne was going to take place a few days after the market closed.

ASSE had in any case not hesitated to take advantage of its possibility of obtaining a joker playing in France by managing to convince Stade Rennais and M'Baye Niang to obtain the one-year loan (without option to purchase ) of the Senegalese striker.

đź”´ L '# ASSE has decided to give up the recruitment of M'Baye Niang.

An agreement had however been reached with Stade Rennais and the player.

But the intervention of several agents made it impossible to finalize the operation.

- AS Saint-Étienne (@ASSEofficiel) October 10, 2020

Rather well endowed with wingers and playmakers (Bouanga, Hamouma, Nordin, Aouchiche, and even Khazri and Boudebouz who finally stayed in Sainté), the Greens are sorely lacking, at the start of the season, of a recognized center forward.

ASSE confirms "the agreement reached with Stade Rennais and the player"

Only Charles Abi (20 years old and currently injured), trained at the club and still looking for his first goal after 20 appearances in Ligue 1, and rookie Jean-Philippe Krasso (23, ex-Epinal in National 2) are indeed intended to share the tip of the Stéphanoise attack.

But while this promising transfer seemed almost complete on Friday, ASSE has just communicated this Saturday "renounce the recruitment" of the 25-year-old Senegalese international.

While confirming "the agreement reached with Stade Rennais and the player", the Greens regret "the intervention of several agents" which "made it impossible to finalize the operation".

Since the arrival of Serhou Guirassy (ex-Amiens), M'Baye Niang is no longer in the plans of Julien Stéphan, who only called on him during the first day of Ligue 1 in Lille (1- 1) August 22.

Author of 29 goals and 9 assists, in all competitions, since his arrival in 2018 at Stade Rennais, the former Milanese seemed to offer great guarantees of efficiency to Claude Puel, whose team is lagging behind with a single point on the last three days.

This missed meeting could well complicate the season of the Greens like that of M'Baye Niang.

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