Mario René Junior Lemina

Mario Lemina left Gabon for France as a teenager and worked his way up through Lorient's reserve side before making his first-team debut in 2012. Marseille signed him the following year, and Juventus took him to Turin in 2015, first on loan and then permanently. In Turin he won back-to-back Serie A titles and Coppa Italia doubles and started for a side that reached the Champions League final.

Southampton made him their club-record signing in 2017, a marker of how highly he was rated at the time. His spell on the south coast was interrupted by loans to Galatasaray and Fulham before he moved on to Nice and then Wolverhampton Wanderers, where supporters voted him their Player of the Season for 2023–24.

Lemina's international story took a turn in 2015, when he switched allegiance from France, where he had already won the U-20 World Cup, to Gabon. He scored on his senior debut against Tunisia and has since become a regular in a Gabon shirt, representing them at three Africa Cup of Nations tournaments. In December 2025 he scored a crucial goal in the World Cup play-off semi-final against Nigeria.

He returned to Galatasaray permanently in February 2025, and the move quickly paid off: back-to-back Süper Lig titles followed, along with a Turkish Cup. For a player who had spent much of his career in England, France and Italy, it marked a second act in Istanbul.