2 weeks ago
Enzo Le Fée has been chatting for 25 minutes erstwhile it becomes clear that his expertise to extract rabbits from hats is not confined to nan pitch.
“I’m a magician,” says Sunderland’s French playmaker arsenic nan speech drifts to life disconnected nan field. “Yes, really! I tin do immoderate magic, tricks pinch nan cards, that benignant of thing. I utilized to practise a batch erstwhile I was young truthful I sewage really good. I still sometimes for illustration to do my tricks but I’m a spot awkward astir performing them now.”
These days Le Fée prefers to ore connected casting his spells connected rival teams, bewitching Sunderland fans and bewildering opponents successful adjacent measure. Régis Le Bris’s £20m signing from Roma possesses an unerring expertise to glimpse attacking possibilities undetected by different players and toggle shape midfield chaos into a coherent threat.
Not contented pinch helping move nan passing triangles beloved by Sunderland’s head into nan type of trigonometry guidance markers struggle to comprehend, Le Fée knows erstwhile to slow things down and erstwhile to velocity play up. He understands nan correct moments to walk first-time and erstwhile he needs to tie defenders retired of position by delaying deliveries until abstraction opens for teammates.
Yet location is acold much to his crippled than exquisite touch, high‑calibre method and audacious improvisation arsenic he drifts betwixt nan lines. Off nan ball, Le Fée is simply a disciplined battler, a diligent presser and, for a flimsy man of 173cm (5ft 8in), a amazingly effective tackler.
“I tin beryllium bully connected nan shot but from nan first infinitesimal I’m besides fighting,” he says. “I effort to bring immoderate magic but I triumph a batch of tackles arsenic well. That’s what Sunderland fans love. Since I was a young boy I’ve ever been smaller than everyone truthful I had to study really to fight.
“My champion expertise is erstwhile I person nan ball. I bask uncovering solutions to problems. But successful this convention you’re nary bully if you don’t activity difficult for nan squad erstwhile we take sides without nan ball. If I tin change nan crippled it’s cleanable but I person to do nan different broadside too.”
Whether occupying his existent preferred cardinal domiciled arsenic a deep‑lying No 10, placed further backmost arsenic a No 6 aliases No 8, aliases deployed connected nan left, Le Fée represents a invited antidote to a sometimes sterile, set-piece-dominated modern crippled afloat of fierce grappling astatine corners and overcoached players. His guidance to robotic, painting-by-numbers shot has provided Sunderland supporters pinch sizeable joyousness and explains why Le Bris believes a playmaker who could do pinch scoring a fewer much goals possesses nan imaginable to scope nan highest echelons.
“Height is very important to a batch of coaches today,” Le Fée reflects. “But there’s this midfielder called Pedri astatine Barcelona … To maine football’s astir what’s wrong your head, astir instinct, not really gangly you are.”
The interest connected Wearside is that his quick, clever feet and moreover sharper encephalon person captivated Premier League rivals. Liverpool look peculiarly enamoured. “It’s really bully to hear, it’s flattering,” Le Fée says. “You want to play successful a really large club, of course. But I bask my clip astatine Sunderland a lot. I’m not judge I’ve done nan maximum present yet. Because they person fixed maine a lot, I want to springiness much to Sunderland.
“At nan infinitesimal my caput is here, my bosom is present and my location is here. I’m 100% a Sunderland guy.”
Le Bris would surely beryllium reluctant to suffer a chap Breton he first coached erstwhile Le Fée was a 12-year-old astatine Lorient. “We person a typical relationship,” says Le Fée, who seems much apt to beryllium offered an improved statement than sold. “It makes it easier because I cognize really Régis useful and he knows really I think. It simplifies things. Sometimes we don’t request to opportunity a lot. And I think, for him, it’s bully to person a subordinate successful nan changing room who knows his ideas.”
As Le Bris roseate from moving Lorient’s academy to go nan club’s caput coach he honed Le Fée’s precocious talent and proved an important mentor to a teen who missed training only erstwhile visiting his father, Jérémy Lamprière, successful prison. Lamprière had been a talented footballer who was drawn into a world of supplier dealing and violence. When Le Fée was 21 he recovered him dormant successful bed. His begetter had taken his ain life.
In nan past he has spoken openly, and bravely, astir nan calamity and he continues to actively support intelligence wellness campaigns but these days Le Fée refuses to fto his life beryllium defined by nan past and prefers to look forward.
He would emotion to break into nan France squad – “It’s an objective” – and play Champions League football, though for nan infinitesimal astatine least, he enjoys Wearside excessively overmuch for restlessness.
Back successful Lorient, Le Bris encouraged Le Fée to return schoolwork earnestly and Sunderland’s unit are impressed by nan intelligence of a midfielder who has leapt from speaking minimal English 16 months agone to fluency. Much much importantly, they admit nan impeccable politeness and humility of a subordinate who, refreshingly, does not do aloof.
In January 2025 Le Fée’s people sunny disposition was clouded by nan protect confines of Roma’s tactical structure. A doorway had opened for Le Bris, contemplating his first transportation model arsenic Sunderland’s manager, to unafraid an eager indebtedness from Serie A.
“My woman knew I wasn’t happy, truthful erstwhile I sewage nan connection from Régis she told maine consecutive away: ‘Whatever you want to do, we do,’” says Le Fée, who had arrived successful Rome from Rennes six months earlier. “That was really bully to perceive … and from time one, we’ve been made truthful invited here.
“Régis said we could do thing really large together and thief get Sunderland promoted but my advisers were really shocked. I said: ‘Trust me.’ I knew I needed to person nan state to play, to consciousness nan correct emotion, again. I was really pleased Régis wanted me. He knows really to springiness maine nan assurance I need. It’s a pleasance to activity pinch him.”
Le Fée is talking astatine nan Academy of Light, Sunderland’s training complex, connected an important anniversary. A twelvemonth earlier Le Bris’s squad overcame Coventry successful nan 2nd leg of nan playoff semi‑finals. Once Sheffield United were beaten astatine Wembley, Le Fée’s indebtedness became a general transfer.
Fifteen caller faces, including astir notably Granit Xhaka, followed during a hectic summertime that prefaced a play dedicated to confounding Sunderland’s doubters. With 2 games remaining – Everton distant connected Sunday and Chelsea astatine location – hope, albeit slight, of Conference League qualification remains alive.
“We’ve sewage 2 finals now,” says Le Fée. “Our thought is to triumph them both. I don’t deliberation it’s excessively early for Europe.”
Getting location would beryllium a testament to Le Bris’s talent. “Every time he’s nan first to get present and nan past to leave,” says Le Fée. “The emotion he gives to football, it’s a lot. He demands a batch from america excessively but he ever asks for our opinions. He gives america state to deliberation for ourselves. He believes nan astir important point for immoderate subordinate is to beryllium capable to sometimes return a risk.
“It intends we’re not frightened to effort things … and to maine football’s astir feeling, small heart and, sometimes, magic.”
