Rennes waiting on Amiens before move for Udinese loanee Opoku

The 22-year-old Ghanaian is of interest to Julien Stephan’s team, but it is not so straight forward to get him

Rennes might need to wait until June 30 before making a move for Udinese defender Nicholas Opoku, Goal understands.

Amiens, where he is presently on loan, have the first option to buy him for €4 million before the temporary deal expires at the end of this month.

The 22-year-old joined the Unicorns in February and made seven appearances, playing for the entire 90 minutes in all of them and getting booked only once.

His efforts were still not enough as Amiens finished 19th in the abruptly-ended Ligue 1 season with 23 points after 28 games.

Opoku’s presence at the back for Luka Elsner’s team saw them keep three clean sheets in the seven games he featured in, which were at home to fellow-relegated side Toulouse, away to Lyon and Strasbourg, which has another Ghanaian in Majeed Waris.

Playing in Ligue 2 next season is certainly not an attractive option for Opoku, but should Amiens exercise the option of purchasing him, he will have to continue with them.

Should Amiens, however, fail to activate that clause, it will pave the way for Rennes, who are looking to strengthen their squad ahead of their debut in the Champions League next season.

The Roazhon Park outfit finished third on the standings and will be participating from the third qualifying round whenever the 2020-21 season kicks off.

The Brittany-based club are also rumoured to be on the radar for Ghana and Valladolid defender Mohammed Salisu, who has a buyout clause of €12 million and is of interest to some European giants like Atletico Madrid, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus.

Opoku also has the option of returning to Udinese where he made 10 competitive appearances before joining Amiens on loan.

He was sent off for two bookable offences in a 7-1 demolition by Atlanta on October 27, 2019. Opoku would only play two more times for them, in a 3-1 victory at Genoa and a 2-1 defeat at Sampdoria.

He spent the month of December and January as an unused substitute.

Opoku joined Udinese from Tunisian side Club Africain in 2018 for €1.5 million and played a total of 22 times.

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