9 forgotten ballers currently playing in Ligue 1 – with one topping assists chart

Florian Thauvin is currently top of the assists chart in Europe and we just had to dig deeper to find out which other forgotten ballers are still strutting their stuff in Ligue 1.

Thauvin, once a forgettable Newcastle United winger, now captains Lens, who gave PSG a good run for their money in the Ligue 1 title race last season and are playing Champions League football this time around.

Ask any football fan to name 10 players from Ligue 1 and chances are they’ll just rattle off 10 PSG players. But you don’t become one of the so-called top five leagues without having a bit more depth of talent.

So we’ve raked through the other squads in Ligue 1 to pick out some of its best forgotten ballers.

Florian Thauvin

Let’s start with the inspiration for this selection.

Thauvin quietly retraced his steps from Newcastle to Marseille after his time in the Premier League didn’t work out, but he hasn’t just stayed in France ever since.

He had two years in Mexico and two in Italy before heading back to his homeland with Lens in 2025.

He scored an impressive 11 league goals last season and has four to his name this term too, but it’s his eight assists that he’s standing out for right now.

The attacking midfielder’s form became hard to ignore and last October he was recalled to the France squad after six years.

Takumi Minamino

It never quite worked out for Minamino at Liverpool but he’s managed to settle at Monaco, where he’s now in his fifth season.

If you didn’t realise he was still there, that might be because the attacking midfielder is just coming back from an ACL injury. Back in action in mid-October, he should soon reach a century of Ligue 1 appearances.

Geoffrey Kondogbia

He may have been born in France, but it was in Spain that Kondogbia really started to emerge to wider attention when he was at Sevilla.

Monaco gave him a chance back in Ligue 1 between 2013 and 2015, before two years in Serie A with Inter and seven back in La Liga, split between Valencia and Atletico Madrid.

It was in 2023 that Kondogbia headed back to Ligue 1 with Marseille, where he’s still playing now. He had an injury-hit 2025-26 season, though.

Kevin Trapp

German goalkeeper Trapp previously had a three-year spell in Ligue 1 with Paris Saint-Germain, initially as a starter and then as a backup for Alphonse Areola.

His time in Paris was sandwiched between two stints with Eintracht Frankfurt, the second of which ended in 2025.

After that it was back to the French capital for Trapp, but this time to sign for Paris FC – 44 metres away from his previous home stadium.

Paris FC were newcomers to the top flight when he arrived and he helped them to a mid-table finish. He’s been their main starter this season too at the age of 36.

Axel Witsel

A well-travelled footballer if ever there was one. Witsel has been here, there and everywhere – and not always somewhere reflective of his true ability – before signing up for his first French foray in August when he joined Nice.

Now 37, he signed a one-year deal there after four years in La Liga. Before that, he played in Belgium, Portugal, Russia, China and Germany.

He’s started seven Ligue 1 games so far and the last four as captain.

But we know what you’re really wondering. Does he still have the afro? You bet he does.

Djibril Sidibe

A Ligue 1 winner with Monaco in 2017 and World Cup winner with France in 2018, Sidibe seemed destined for big things.

But he didn’t set the world alight during a loan move into the Premier League with Everton and ended up being sold by Monaco to AEK Athens in 2022.

The right-back returned to France with Toulouse in 2024, before joining newly promoted Le Mans this summer.

He got sent off less than a minute into his debut. Ouch.

Nabil Bentaleb

Once upon a time, Bentaleb was a big prospect for Tottenham, earning just shy of 50 Premier League appearances.

But his time with Spurs reached a messy end and he ended up at Schalke in the Bundesliga instead.

The midfielder made a move back to his country of birth in 2022, joining Angers for an 18-month spell.

Then, in 2023, he joined his hometown team Lille, where he’s still a regular starter at 31.

Nicolas Tagliafico

One of the stars of the Ajax side that reached the Champions League semi-finals in 2019, Tagliafico took a few years after that to secure his next step.

But while many of that squad ended up in the Premier League, Tagliafico instead went to Ligue 1 with Lyon.

A few months after his move, the left-back became a World Cup winner with Argentina. Silverware at club level has eluded him in France, though, and he’s now 34 and in the last year of his contract.

Thorgan Hazard

The more famous Hazard brother retired a few years ago, but Eden’s sibling is still at it.

Thorgan has played to an older age than Eden ever did. He’s now 33, and his brother was 32 when he hung up his boots.

For this Hazard, there was an emotional homecoming in the summer when he re-joined Lens – the club he left Chelsea for in 2012 to link up with his brother.

It’s actually his first time playing in Ligue 1, since Lens were in Ligue 2 when he broke through there.

He’s since played in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. Now he has Champions League football back on his agenda for the first time since his Borussia Dortmund days.