Souleymane Faye has 6 appearances and 202 minutes for Lorient this season, and he is still waiting for his first goal contribution. The 23-year-old winger arrived on loan with a buy option at the end of the season worth €6.5 million, so this has moved beyond simple adaptation. Lorient now have to judge whether the minutes he has earned are enough to justify that outlay.
Lorient's buy option and the early return
His first two months were especially quiet. Faye totalled 78 minutes across four substitute appearances, then got his first start against Angers on matchday eight. He now has 0 goals and 0 assists, which is a thin return for a player brought in to give the attack another layer.
That does not mean the move has failed, but it does mean the case for buying him is still weakly built. Ouest-France described him as “talent in search of confirmation”, while Le Télégramme called Lorient “a good springboard” for his career restart. Faye himself said he had been “waiting a lot” for his chance.
Sporting CP are still part of the backdrop too, because the option remains on Lorient's side. Between January and May 2026, Faye played 9 first-team games for Sporting CP, all as a substitute, totalling 171 minutes. The club in Brittany are not buying a finished product here, only deciding whether the price tag matches the signs he has shown so far.
Lorient's next league match is against Rennes on 2026-11-22, and that is another chance for Faye to do more than just wait.
Written by Sam Whitfield with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →
