Digne Express
Men's football•
Here is a summary of the career of Paris Saint-Germain’s new signing, Lucas Digne!
Born in Meaux (Seine-et-Marne), around 50 kilometres from Paris, on 20 July 1993, it was in the Hauts-de-France region that the young Lucas took his first steps as a footballer. A forward for US Mareuil-sur-Ourcq (from 1999 to 2002) and then US Crépy-en-Valois (from 2002 to 2005), he caught the eye of scouts from one of the region’s leading youth academies and joined LOSC Lille’s youth teams at the age of 13, moving into their Academy a year later. Regularly promoted to higher age groups, he was converted to a left-back and progressed through the ranks at breakneck speed.
These performances earned him a place in the French national team and its youth squads, where he established himself at every level: U17 (15 caps), U18 (11 caps), U19 (12 caps, 1 goal), U20s (12 caps, 2 goals) and U21s (7 caps), before joining the first team at the club where he came through the ranks and signing his first professional contract in 2010. He made his debut at the highest level and quickly established himself as a first-team regular for the Dogues (62 competitive matches and 3 goals between 2011 and 2013), eventually being nominated for the Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year award at the UNFP Awards, and attracting the interest of Europe’s top clubs...
After lifting the U20 World Cup alongside, notably, the then Paris Saint-Germain players Alphonse Areola, Youssouf Sabaly and Jean-Christophe Bahebeck, Digne joined the capital club in the summer of 2013. Playing with the likes of Marquinhos, Thiago Silva, Javier Pastore, Blaise Matuidi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, he won his first major honours by securing a domestic treble (Trophée des Champions, Coupe de la Ligue and Ligue 1) in his very first season, before adding the Coupe de France the following season to complete the first quadruple in France (a feat the club would repeat in 2016, 2018 and 2020, before the Coupe de la Ligue was discontinued).
After the City of Light, it was on to the Eternal City! Digne was loaned out for a season to AS Roma, where he secured a place in the starting line-up (42 competitive matches, 3 goals). It was a busy year that convinced FC Barcelona and their manager, a certain Luis Enrique, to sign him. The Frenchman moved to Catalonia and resumed his trophy haul over the next two seasons, lifting the 2016 Supercopa de España and the 2017 Copa del Rey, and winning La Liga in 2018 (46 competitive matches, 2 goals).
France, Italy, Spain… and England, to continue the tour of Europe! The French international pulled on a blue shirt at club level again when he joined Everton FC, where he played for three and a half seasons (127 competitive matches, 6 goals), spending some time under the guidance of former Paris Saint-Germain manager Carlo Ancelotti. At the same time, he won his first international trophy with the 2021 UEFA Nations League, before signing for Aston Villa FC a few months later.
After four and a half seasons in Birmingham (182 competitive matches, 4 goals), the defender brings his time with the Villains to a close by adding another title to his impressive list of honours: the UEFA Europa League, under the guidance of competition specialist and another former Rouge et Bleu coach Unai Emery. A few months later, as fate would have it, it will be on the opposition side that Paris Saint-Germain’s new number 12 will attempt to win the second European trophy of his career in the opening match of the 2026–2027 season: the UEFA Super Cup!
On 29 July 2013, twelve days after signing his first contract with Paris Saint-Germain and nine days after celebrating his 20th birthday, Lucas Digne took part in his first training session with the capital club at the Clairefontaine National Football Centre (then based in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, as the Camp des Loges was undergoing renovation work that summer)… A nice twist of fate for a player who would go on to make his international debut a few months later and has – to date – represented the French national team 64 times.
Alongside him that day were two players who had also been signed during the summer and were taking part in their first training session in Rouge et Bleu and who would go on to become true legends of Paris Saint-Germain: striker Edinson Cavani, who had joined from SSC Napoli and would go on to become the club’s all-time leading goalscorer (200 goals, a record since surpassed by Kylian Mbappé with 235), and defender Marquinhos, who arrived from AS Roma and would go on to set the club records for the number of matches played (523) and trophies won (38) with Paris. These two records are still ongoing, which shows just how much of a mark the Paris Saint-Germain captain has left on the club.
