What makes Ludovic Blas a top French talent?
23-year-old Ludovic Blas is slowly emerging as one of France's best young talents. A creative midfielder for FC Nantes, Blas has played every single game for the French club this season.
EA Guingamp graduate Blas made the move to Nantes before the 2019/20 Ligue 1 season. Prior to that, he enjoyed four years at Guingamp as a reserve.
🤝 Nantes scores thanks to Ludovic Blas and now it's an even match⚽️
The visitors leveled terms and are now 1-1 against Lille.
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Ludovic Blas at the U-20 level
Blas made steady progress through the French academies. He made his name in U-19 Euros as he shone in France's attack alongside the likes of Kylian Mbappe and Amine Harit. He played 11 U-19 games for France with a scoring record of one in every two games, for a total of 6 goals.
He went on to make another 14 appearances for the French U-20 team as well.
Interest from top clubs and the move to Nantes
Blas' success at the junior level naturally attracted interest from top French outfits like Lyon and Marseille. There were reports of an interest from outside France as well.
However, he decided to stay another two seasons at Guingamp.
Finally, in the summer of 2019, he made a move to Nantes for a reported fee of €6.5 million.
Rise in prominence
Blas has been deployed as a creative playmaker who operates on the left-wing for Nantes. Despite a tough start under manager Christian Gourcuff in 2019, Blas quickly became a key asset in attack for Nantes.
In only his third game in Ligue 1 against Saint-Etienne, he made a big impact by scoring a fantastic finish and also creating an assist. He followed that up by scoring the decisive goal against Toulouse in December.
Blas' second season at Nantes
Blas established himself as a regular for Nantes. At this point, he played every single game for Nantes this season. In that process, he has scored seven goals and an assist, the highest among the players in the bottom half of the table.
After scoring in a 2-0 win against Metz on the second matchday, Blas scored a brace in a 4-1 victory against Angers.
His ability to cut inside from the wings apart from his brilliant finishing touch enabled Nantes to up vital points this season against Strasburg and, more recently, Lille.
2021-2022 🇫🇷 Ligue 1 Goals Leaders
Gaëtan Laborde (7)
Jonathan David (6)
Wissam Ben Yedder (5)
Dimitri Payet (5)
Mohamed Bayo (5)
Ludovic Blas (5)
Amine Gouiri (5)
Wahbi Khazri (5)
Kylian Mbappé (5)
Habib Diallo (4)
fbref.com/en/comps/13/st…
His link-up play with Kalifa Coulibaly has yielded half of Nantes' goals this season. Slowly but steadily, Blas has emerged as a lynchpin for Antoine Kombouare's men this season.