Saints signed 23 year old Gabonese central midfielder Mario Lemina from Italian side Juventus on the 8th of August 2017 for a reputed club record fee of £18.1M (€20M).

Club Career

Lemina started his early career at Lorient in Brittany, France in 2005, graduating to the first team in 2012, making 14 appearances.

He moved to Marseille in 2013 for €4M where he made 41 appearances over two seasons, scoring 2 goals. His manager at Marseille was the legendary Marcelo Bielsa. Under Bielsa's tutelage Lemina's star was in the ascendancy and he was signed on a season long loan to Juventus in 2015, with an option to buy for €9.5M. The loan was made permanent in April 2016.

Lemina made 29 appearances and scored 3 goals over the two seasons he was at Juventus

International Career

Internationally Mario has represented France at U20 and U21 level, but has gone on to make 9 appearances so far for Gabon.