News: Sunderland linked with move for promising young French striker Matthis Abline

Despite the signing of Luis ‘Hemir’ Semedo yesterday, Sunderland will still need another striker up front to compliment Ross Stewart - and reports in France suggest that we are targeting Matthis Abline.

Abline is currently under contract at Rennes until 2025, and La Parisien credits Sunderland as well as Reims, Strasbourg and Lorient, with an interest in the 20-year-old. who is rated at around the £7m mark.

The player spent the second half of last season on loan at Auxerre in Ligue 1, after mostly being used as a substitute in the first half of the season for his parent club, although he did feature more prominently for Rennes in the Europa League.

A current French under-21 international, Abline has been a team-mate of Abdoullah Ba through various youth groups for the national side and was also a team-mate of Ba during the 21-22 season as he spent a spell on loan at Le Havre.

Abline played 30 times in Ligue 1 last season but only for a total of 895 minutes, despite that short amount of playing time he still scored three and provided two assists.