Jeremy Doku to City in 2023 for 60 million, Jeremy Jaquet to Liverpool next summer for 70 million. Stade Rennes always brings huge, top-level talent onto the market. What does the club do differently than others?
When asked what Jeremy Doku, Ousmane Dembelé and Eduardo Camavinga have in common, the keen football insider naturally knows the answer: all three come from the Stade Rennes youth department. Which – as those familiar with the international youth scene will also know – is not particularly surprising. Because: Stade Rennes is known for its exceptionally good youth work.
The biggest of the club’s recent coups from the Breton university town: Jeremy Doku moved to Manchester City for around 60 million euros for the 2023/24 season. This winter, Saudi club Al Hilal put 30 million euros on the table for 18-year-old striker Kader Meite. This makes Meite, who has been trained in Rennes since the U17s, the sixth most expensive sale in the club’s history.
Liverpool – 70 million for Rennes defender
Soon he will only be in seventh place in this ranking: Liverpool FC has already signed a contract with the defensive talent Jeremy Jaquet. Next summer, the 20-year-old (with a height of 1.90 meters) will move from Rennes to Anfield Road for a total of around 70 million euros.
Kader Meite – 30 million for an 18 year old
What is this club all about? What makes Stade Rennes different? Why does the club have such a noticeably better output of quality players at international level than others?
1998: French investor takes over
To answer the question, you have to look back a bit. When the Breton multi-billionaire Francois Pinault bought the club in 1998, he initially put a lot of money into it. He brought in experienced players from outside and wanted to take Stade to the top of France by express route. Four years later, the shrewd businessman realized: It doesn’t work that way. He turned around. And invested in youth work. His players should be trained in their own stable in the future. And correctly.
Pinault followed words with actions and invested in youth work. From 2002 onwards, the club’s youth academy received seven to ten percent of the club’s total budget every year. For comparison: In the Bundesliga, these budgets are usually a maximum of four percent.
It all started in 2006 with the sale of Yoann Gourcuff.
Again and again: best academy in France
A short time later, Pinault handed the business over to his son Francois-Henri. As the owner and CEO of the Kering empire, he owns the brands Gucci, Balenciaga, Puma – and Stade Rennes. And the club developed into a real source of foreign currency. Starting in 2006, Rennes’ youth academy was named the country’s best academy six times in a row. Even then, the proceeds for Yoann Gourcuff, Stephane Mbia and Yann M’Vila alone far exceeded the costs of the training.
The trend was set and continues to this day. The training is not only sporty, but also strongly structured in terms of school: around 80 employees look after the talented people – from coaching and training work to school support. The Fédération Française de Football has again named Rennes’ academy as the best training facility in recent years (most recently 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25).
29 Rennes players in top European clubs
What the club is particularly proud of: The youth academy has a 100 percent pass rate in French Baccalaureate provide evidence that corresponds to the German Abitur. An important principle for the red-blacks: the young players are given the chance to show themselves in the professional team at an early stage. It is mandatory for Rennes coaches to introduce the best talents to the first team at the age of 17 and 18.
| player | Current club | at Stade Rennes | Proceeds for Rennes |
|---|---|---|---|
Desiré Doue | Paris Saint Germain | 2021-24 | 50 million euros |
Ousmane Dembele | Paris Saint Germain | 2010-16 | 37.5 million euros |
Eduardo Camavinga | real Madrid | 2013-21 | 30 million euros |
Mathy’s phone | Tottenham Hotspur | 2020-22 | 20 million euros |
Georginio Rutter | Brighton & Hove | 2017-21 | 750,000 euros |
Sacha Boey | Bayern Munich | 2014-21 | 5.65 million euros |
Lesley Ugochukwu | Burnley FC | 2012-22 | 27 million euros |
Jeremy documentary | Manchester City | 2020-23 | 60 million euros |
Squad Meite | Al Hilal | 2022-26 | 30 million euros |
In this way, the young players get playing time, can prove themselves, learn and, above all, they can show themselves. The result: 29 players who were trained at Rennes are currently (2025/26) under contract with other clubs in Europe’s top 5 leagues.
And talents who make it into Rennes’ first team can now be sure of one thing: they will be seen. Some of them will follow a similar path to Jeremy Doku, Ousmane Dembelé and Eduardo Camavinga.
