Showing2026/27 seasonAll official competitions
Preferred Positions
Last 24 months · all competitions
LWB
Left wing-backMain
4,102 min · 47 apps · 45 starts
LB
Left-back
1,830 min · 20 apps · 20 starts
CB
Centre-back
834 min · 10 apps · 10 starts
Squad importance
Current squad importance over the club’s last 40 recorded competitive games in this spell, including previous seasons. Starts and minutes contribute 70%; performance contributes 30%. Absences reduce the score gradually, with less weight when a player is outside the matchday squad.Current role at Lens · independent of the season filter
Star
Involvement94%
Performance48%
Through the match on 4 Nov 2026. Refreshed daily.
Profile
Career & playing style
Matthieu Udol is a left-footed defender who can work as a full-back, left wing-back or on the left of a back three. The higher starting point lets him reach crossing positions; the deeper one asks him to protect the flank. He says his attacking runs depend on preserving the team's defensive balance.
Born in Metz, Udol started at SC Marly before entering FC Metz's academy. He signed a professional deal at 19 and spent part of 2015/16 on loan at Belgian club Seraing. Back at Metz, he joined a side that won promotion from Ligue 2. His Ligue 1 debut against Paris Saint-Germain in 2016/17 followed a serious knee injury.
Further knee setbacks interrupted his early top-flight years. Udol regained a regular place and became Metz's captain during the 2022/23 promotion campaign, after another interruption in 2021/22. He led the side back to Ligue 1. His career developed through repeated changes of division rather than an uninterrupted rise.
In 2024/25, his final Metz season, Udol scored in both legs of the promotion play-off against Reims as the club went up again. He also provided eight Ligue 2 assists. Those contributions show how his advances from the left could produce chances and goals as well as move Metz up the pitch.
Udol joined Lens in July 2025 and played both left centre-back and wing-back. He preferred the latter role for its attacking scope. In a December win over Nice, two of his crosses found Odsonne Édouard for headed goals: a clear example of his width becoming service for a striker.
He started Lens's Coupe de France final against Nice in May 2026 and cut the ball back for Florian Thauvin's opener in a 3–1 win, the club's first title in that competition. He also started the August Trophée des Champions victory over Paris Saint-Germain; his ball across the area supplied Thauvin's winning goal.
The job requires repeated runs in both directions. In 2025/26 Udol was among Ligue 1's leaders for total and high-intensity distance. His own account adds a tactical condition to that output: move forward when the team's shape can absorb it. The two final assists show what that movement can create when he reaches the left side of the area.