The Pau FC, banned from recruiting by FIFA for a year and a half, has launched a contest with a content creator to recruit an amateur player for the next season.
A club prohibited from recruitment by FIFA but full of ideas. The Pau FC, currently eleventh in Ligue 2, can no longer make incoming transfers for three transfer windows. The reason? The club signed attacker Mouhamed Diouf in January 2025, without having his contract approved by the Professional Football League. The Senegalese representatives then “started a procedure with FIFA to assert their rights.”
The result is simple, the people of Pau are no longer allowed to recruit until the winter transfer window of 2028. To counter this problem, which could quickly handicap the club, the leaders, in partnership with the content creator and amateur player Valentin Liénard, launched a contest titled: “Who will sign pro?”
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Liénard has been recruited by Pau. He previously played in National 3 (Bergerac). His 700,000 subscribers should help make this initiative known. The Youtuber explained his approach in a post on his social networks: “I will select 30 subscribers who will compete to win a professional football contract. Like ‘The Voice’ that gives a singer the chance to become a star, the idea is to give the opportunity to a player who slipped through the cracks to become a pro and join a Ligue 2 club.”
Anyone who wants to take on this adventure now has three weeks to sign up. Valentin Liénard assured that he himself, along with the club, would select the top 30 profiles. They will then compete in “trainings, matches, tests, and real pressure. In the end, only one will remain.” The lucky one should join the Pau squad from next season!
