The stubborn one rewarded: RC Lens' Brice Samba joins Les Bleus | OneFootball

Lens goalkeeper Brice Samba has made the step up from the English second division to the French national team in less than a year - quite the ascension for a player who faced plenty of tests on the way.

"He has everything going for him," Didier Deschamps explained Thursday in a press conference, a few minutes after announcing the first call-up of the Lens 'keeper, for the reception of the Netherlands on March 24 and then a trip to Ireland on 27 March. "I will be checking out the list, I hope to be there," Brice Samba warned in early March in a press conference. His performances as the last bastion of Ligue 1 Uber Eats' best defence this season and his ease on the ball saw him to preferred to Nantes glovesman Alban Lafont. Roundabout

At almost 29 years old, however, the goalkeeper could have thought his time had passed. Next week, in Clairefontaine, he will be almost an old head in the locker room, as only four players are older than him in the list of 23 players unveiled by DD. It must be said that Brice Samba, although clearly first choice at Lens, took his time to establish himself. In the summer of 2018, at the age of 24, he had only twenty professional games to his credit under the shirts of Le Havre, Marseille, Nancy and Caen. It was then that his career finally took off. Rémy Vercoutre, for whom he was the understudy at Caen, hung up his boots and Samba was promoted to No.1. That season ended in relegation to Ligue 2 BKT, forcing Samba to leave Normandy. At the beginning of the 2019-20 season, he moved to Nottingham Forest, in the English second division, where he immediately became a starter. Three years later, when Nottingham Forest had just secured their promotion to the Premier League, Samba could not resist the siren calls of Lens, who had just finished seventh in Ligue 1 Uber Eats. 'The next level' The native of Linzolo, Congo, may have been unknown to the general public at the time, but RC Lens was immediately aware that they had nabbed a big one. "When he signed for us, we knew about the goalkeeper and were able to say that, perhaps at some point, he would be a goalkeeper who would have the potential to be in the French team," recalled Lens coach Franck Haise, speaking to the press on Thursday. "He is a 'keeper who has reached maturity today, he has gone to the next level with this club."

RC LENS - LOSC LILLE (1-1) / Highlights (RCL - LOSC) 2022/2023

Onwards and upwards

With their new goalkeeper, RC Lens began quickly moving into the top tier of Ligue 1 Uber Eats - and Brice Samba quickly became one of the fan favourites at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis. The fact that Lens have only conceded 21 goals in 28 games - four fewer than OGC Nice and seven fewer than Paris Saint-Germain and Olympique de Marseille - is largely due to their goalkeeper, who has made some spectacular one-handed saves. So much so that after the derby against Lille (1-1) at the beginning of March, his performance was praised by his Les Dogues counterpart, Lucas Chevalier. "Without him, Lens would not be where they are. He is a top goalkeeper in Ligue 1 Uber Eats," said the Lille 'keeper. "Frankly, he deserves to be among the three (goalkeepers in the French team)."