Saints reportedly ‘could sign’ starlet from Sport Republic sister club Valenciennes

SAINTS report­ed­ly could sign young defend­er Joachim Kayi San­da from Sport Repub­lic sis­ter club Valen­ci­ennes this sum­mer. 

French divi­sion two side Valen­ci­ennes were the third club acquired by Sport Repub­lic and Dra­gan Solak, fol­low­ing Gozte­pe.

They face rel­e­ga­tion to the third divi­sion in France, cur­rent­ly sit­ting bot­tom of the league with 10 games to go, 11 points adrift of 19th.

How­ev­er, 2006-born Kayi San­da is cap­tain of France’s under-18s side and has played every minute of the last sev­en league fix­tures. 

The cen­tre-back has emerged with real cred­it and could make a trans­fer this sum­mer to help with Valen­ci­en­nes’s finances. 

Foot­Mer­ca­to report that Saints could sign the young­ster to ‘finan­cial­ly help’ their sis­ter club, in the first per­ma­nent move between the clubs.

Saints goal­keep­er Mat Lis is cur­rent­ly on loan at Gozte­pe, help­ing the Turk­ish side in their quest for pro­mo­tion back to the Super Lig.

The report adds there is inter­est in Kayi San­da from oth­er clubs, while no poten­tial price tag is named in the report. 

Kayi San­da is under con­tract at Valen­ci­ennes until June 2026, sign­ing his first pro­fes­sion­al con­tract in Sep­tem­ber last year.

The advan­tage of the mul­ti-club mod­el means Saints are in the dri­ving seat for any nego­ti­a­tions if they want the play­er.

Sport Repub­lic took oper­a­tional con­trol of Valen­ci­ennes fol­low­ing the trans­fer of a major­i­ty stake in July last year. 

Saints are like­ly to be in the mar­ket for addi­tion­al sign­ings this sum­mer regard­less of what divi­sion they are in.

Acad­e­my recruiters have been active in bring­ing tal­ent to play for the under-21s, includ­ing the likes of of Joe O’Brien-Whit­marsh from Cork City.