Kalimuendo: RC Lens confirm departure of PSG forward

RC Lens have confirmed the departure of Arnaud Kalimuendo after completing his loan move to Stade Bollaert-Delelis.

The Ligue 1 outfit announced this on their social media handle: ‘Thank you Arnaud Kalimuendo,’ the Instagram post read.

After impressing at Paris Saint-Germain’s youth side, the France youth international of Congolese background was handed his first professional contract on July 8, 2019.

Although, the move was set to expire in 2022, he was loaned to the Ligue 1 outfit as he could not break into Mauricio Pochettino’s first team at Parc des Princes.

That promoted his loan move to Lens – where he continued with his development under manager Franck Haise.

There, the 19-year-old became a regular in the Blood and Gold squad. In the 2020-21 campaign, he appeared in 28 league games.

He scored his maiden French top-flight goal in Lens' 1-0 defeat of Dijon on November 22, 2020.

By scoring his third goal for the club against Rennes he became the first Lens player in 70 years to score in his first three games as a starter in the French elite division.

Even at that, he went ahead to score on five more occasions to finish the just-concluded campaign with seven strikes as Haise’s team finished in seventh position having accrued 57 points from 38 games.

Moreover, Kalimuendo scored one goal in two Coupe de France outings but the team crashed out in the Round of 64.

Even after his exploits on loan, it looks unlikely if the teenager would play a role in Pochettino’s squad next term, as he could be on the move.

On the international scene, the Suresnes-born star was part of France’s team that finished third at the 2019 Fifa U17 World Cup in Brazil in 2019, scoring a hat-trick in the third-place play-off against the Netherlands.

Last month, he was drafted into the U21 Euros squad by coach Sylvain Ripoll after Randal Kolo Muani was removed from the squad due to his involvement in the Ligue 1 relegation/promotion play-offs with Nantes.

Yet, Kalimuendo remains very eligible to represent DR Congo at senior level as his parents are from the African country.