LENS, France (AP) — Lens signed former France winger Florian Thauvin from Italian side Udinese on a three-year contract on Friday.

The 32-year-old Thauvin captained Udinese in Serie A last season, scoring eight league goals, and he was under contract for another year.

Lens did not give financial details but French sports daily L’Équipe said the club paid 6 million euros ($7 million). Thauvin returns to Ligue 1 after playing the best soccer of his career for Marseille.

During a prolific spell playing alongside the mercurial Dimitri Payet, he scored 57 league goals across three seasons and coach Didier Deschamps called him up to the national side.

Thauvin was a squad member when France won the 2018 World Cup, and made the last of 10 appearances for Les Bleus the following year.

After leaving Marseille, he joined Mexican side Tigres but the move did not work out and he went to Udinese in January 2023. Overall, he scored 15 goals in 73 games for the club.

Thauvin also played for Bastia early in his career.

He made headlines when, after signing for Lille in January 2013 and being sent back on loan to Bastia for the rest of the season, he then pushed for a move to Marseille instead that summer. The move went through without Thauvin playing a single game for Lille, making him vastly unpopular with the club’s fans.

Thauvin also had an unsuccessful spell with Newcastle in the Premier League from 2015-16, before being loaned to Marseille and then rejoining the club permanently.

Lens opens its Ligue 1 campaign at home to Lyon on Aug. 16 and hosts Lille on Sept. 21.

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