Why Rennes is a talent factory for the Ballon d’Or with three former players from the Ligue 1 club leading race for 2025 award

Brittany’s reputation may historically have been centred around its coast, food and historical architecture, but it is making a different sort of waves in the world of footballer development.

The region’s capital, Rennes, is a club starved of success at the elite level, with their only recent trophy coming in the form of their Coupe de France crown in 2019, where they memorably beat a Paris Saint-Germain side containing Kylian Mbappe, Angel di Maria and Neymar.

However, success can come in different forms, and where Rennes have proved themselves the equal of any European club is in their development of players.

Per Eurosport France, over the past 20 years, Rennes have produced 94 players who have played at least one minute in one of the five major European leagues.

Only five clubs can beat that, many of them with incomparable financial muscle, swelled by year-on-year revenues coming from competing at the sharp end of European football – something Rennes rarely does.

Having just been named the best academy in France for the third consecutive season, it is clear they are an attractive proposition to those players looking to build a career in the game.

Where world stars Petr Cech, Sylvain Wiltord and Mikael Silvestre once trod, there is now a new raft of Rennes alumni making their mark.

A Coupe de France, Ligue 1 and UEFA Champions League treble has already been completed, and the FIFA Club World Cup could follow.

All this in a season where the French forward has had – if you can say this of a 28-year-old – a breakout campaign, turning into a prolific marksman, hitting 33 goals in 49 appearances.

Dembele spent six of his formative years at Rennes, before moving to Dortmund in 2016.

He grew up in Evreux – in Normandy but closer to Paris – and benefited from the club focussing its scouting efforts on the French capital, one of the most fertile places in the world for young talent.

After just one season in Germany, Dembele moved to Barcelona for an eye-watering initial fee of £97 million.

It didn’t quite work out for him at the Camp Nou, but his career could reach its zenith if he takes home the most coveted individual award in the game.

Another man with a treble under his belt and eyeing a first Ballon d’Or is Dembele’s PSG team-mate Desire Doue.

Should he win the game’s greatest individual gong, he would be the youngest ever to do so, eclipsing ‘R9’ Ronaldo, who did so aged 21 in 1997.

Doue is a true ‘Rennais’, starting playing at the club aged five and staying there for 13 years until his €50m move to PSG just last summer.

Winning the Ballon d’Or would cap a whirlwind rise in the game and no doubt be celebrated wildly back in the Rennes coaching fraternity.

Raphinha is a different case in that he spent just over a year at Rennes – having joined as their record signing in 2019 – but it was a vital one nonetheless, with his displays earning him a move to Leeds that ultimately put him on a path to Barcelona and his current lofty status in the game.

At 22, Raphinha benefited from Rennes’ ability to hone high-level young players, and he repaid them in kind as the club secured an unexpected qualification for the Champions League.

The Brazilian notched eight goals and seven assists during his time in Brittany.

Well before his move to Real Madrid, Eduardo Camavinga was long touted as one of the best young talents in world football.

Like Doue, Camavinga was another Rennes boy, starting at the club aged 11 in 2013 and leaving for the bright lights of the Spanish capital in 2021 at 18.

With huge competition in the Real Madrid over the recent era from the likes of Luka Modric, Toni Kroos, Fede Valverde and latterly Jude Bellingham, it could be argued that Camavinga has not quite found his ceiling at the club – yet.

Part of that is down to injuries, but should he get a clean bill of health this term, and with Modric soon to join Kroos in exiting the club, Camavinga’s line-breaking passing and energetic pressing abilities could see him find a consistent spot in the side under new boss Xabi Alonso.

And that could yet mean he features in the Ballon d’Or conversation in the years to come.

Yet another European champion forged in Rennes, this time Mathys Tel winning the UEFA Europa League with Spurs.

Another Parisian-raised talent who also spent time at the world-famous Clairefontaine French national academy, Tel broke Camavinga’s record as the youngest player ever to play for Rennes, aged 16 years and 110 days.

If the cards fall right, there may well be other Rennes alumni who compete for the Ballon d’Or in future seasons.

Man City’s Jeremy Dok is now a familiar face to Premier League followers, and after a bright beginning at the club, the Belgian winger could yet flourish further this coming season, especially if he can build on Pep Guardiola’s assertion that he is the “best player in the world in the first metres.”

Doku spent three seasons at Rennes before his £55.5m move to Manchester in 2023.

A star turn at the under-21 Euros has been provided by Djaoui Cissewho impressed in France’s run to the semi-finals.

The 21-year-old only made his first Ligue 1 start in February and wasn’t even in France’s original squad, but will no doubt have caught the eyes of some of Europe’s biggest clubs during the tournament in Slovakia.

Can Rennes hold onto him after his breakout tournament?

Dortmund's Serhou Guirassy had three years at Rennes between 2020 and 2023, hitting 25 goals in 81 total appearances.

With Stuttgart and then Dortmund, he has gone on to become one of Europe’s leading marksmen, and though 29, he could yet have a big move in him that could propel him into the elite.

And looking further into the crystal ball, a new sensation – still at Rennes – could be 17-year-old forward Mohamed Kader Meite.

The France youth international won the inaugural ‘Golden Kid’ award in June, and has been tipped as the next cab off the club’s stellar production rank.

With a reported €180m in the bank from the sales of academy players Doue, Camavinga, Dembele, Tel, and the now Chelsea midfielder Lesley Ugochukwu – the club’s development efforts will likely have plenty of investment to benefit from in the coming years too.