There was a time, not so long ago, when Denis Bouanga belonged to the most bankable players of the Greens of AS Saint-Etienne. A time when the 27-year-old winger’s performance and sports statistics were proportional to his valuation on the transfer market.
The ASSE winger valued at more than €30 million in 2020
Flashback in 2020, a year after his arrival in Forez, against compensation of 4.5 million euros, excluding bonuses. Denis Bouanga is irresistible, despite the overall results of the Saint-Etienne collective. Transfermarkt then values him at more than a dozen million euros and the Football Observatory (CIES) in Switzerland, delivers an even more optimistic analysis about him, between 30 and 40 million euros.
Bouanga’s rating is down after this winter transfer window
But that was before. That ASSE dives lower in the French championship and that Denis Bouanga goes out somewhat, less flamboyant on the ground, like the rest of his partners elsewhere. The consequence is brutal on its market rating. At the start of 2022, it is “only” 7 million for Transfermarkt and 4 to 7 million for CIES.
Under contract with the Greens until the end of next season
The sporting crisis that Saint-Etienne is going through explains it naturally, the time that flies and brings him closer to the end of his contract, too. Denis Bouanga signed five years, in 2019, until June 2023. He only has sixteen months left by the final deadline, he could not go that far and leave this summer, as long as he is still valued. Especially if his club were to slip into league 2, at the end of this sporting exercise.