SUNDERLAND face fresh competition from French club Lille in the battle to sign out-of-favour Roma midfielder Enzo Le Fee.

Black Cats officials have held a number of discussions over Le Fee, who has been deemed surplus to requirements at Roma despite only having joined the Serie A club in a €23m move in the summer.

Sunderland are hoping to engineer a loan deal with a view to a permanent signing in the summer, which would potentially be dependent on them winning promotion to the Premier League.

Roma had been discussing a similar arrangement with Real Betis, and were reportedly close to sealing a deal, only for talks to break down at the start of the week.

That created a window of opportunity for Sunderland, with Regis Le Bris already having a close personal relationship with Le Fee after the pair worked together during their time at Lorient.

However, other clubs have also now expressed an interest in signing Le Fee, with Lille’s pursuit of the 24-year-old having stepped up significantly in the last couple of days.

Like Sunderland, Lille also boast a head coach who has previously worked with Le Fee in the shape of Bruno Genesio. He managed Le Fee during the midfielder’s time at Rennes prior to moving to Roma in the summer.

Lille are also understood to be keen on an initial loan, with the potential for a permanent transfer further down the line, and are attempting to persuade Le Fee and his representatives that a return to Ligue 1 would be better for him than a switch to the English second tier.

Lille are currently fourth in the Ligue 1 table, just five points adrift of second-placed Marseille, with Genesio having publicly expressed a desire to strengthen ahead of the second half of the season.

The French club are also still involved in the Champions League, having performed extremely strongly in the opening three months of European action. They currently sit in eighth position in the new-look group format with two more group games still to play.

Sunderland’s recruitment team were always aware of likelihood of strong competition for Le Fee’s signature, and are still hopeful of being able to engineer a deal that will see the midfielder playing on Wearside in the second half of the season.