Enzo Le Fee: Is Sunderland's Roma loanee the keystone in the Black Cats' bid for promotion to the Premier League?

After Trai Hume found him with a pass that made its way through the legs of Luton’s Lamine Fanne with concerning ease, he rolled his right foot over the ball, took a touch to steady himself, a touch to set himself and then hit a shot that curled and dipped before landing in the bottom right corner of the net.

Enzo Le Fee’s first goal in English was a beauty.

As was the case when Ruben Neves swapped Champions League football with Porto for the Championship with Wolves in July 2017, many still cannot believe he is playing for Sunderland.

Just over seven months ago, the 25-year-old – who played for France U21s alongside the likes of Arsenal’s William Saliba, Real Madrid’s Eduardo Camavinga and Sevilla’s Loic Bade – joined Roma from Rennes – for a reported fee of €23m.

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The price tag, naturally, came with expectation. But it never quite clicked for Le Fee in the Italian capital – and the managerial situation will not have helped.

Daniele De Rossi handed him his full debut in central midfield for the Serie A opener against Cagliari, played him for 61 minutes, then brought him on for the last half-hour of the 2-1 defeat to Empoli.

A knee injury kept him out of the next six games, by which point a new man was in charge at Stadio Olimpico: Ivan Juric. He started four games in defensive midfield under the Croatian – now in charge at Southampton – but he, too, was gone by November 10.

And when Claudio Ranieri returned for a third spell in charge at the club where he started his career, he rarely made it off the bench.

That paved the way for a loan spell to Sunderland, who have an option-to-buy clause that will reportedly become an obligation if they are promoted to the Premier League.

Speaking in a press conference shortly before Le Fee’s arrival at the Stadium of Light was announced, Ranieri spoke of him in a positive manner.

“Yesterday he said goodbye to me and I was sorry to let him go, to be honest,” he said. “I told him: ‘You had the misfortune of changing coaches, I never got to try you, I had priorities.’ But I liked the boy a lot.

“He left because he wants to play. He goes down a category like I went down going to Catanzaro in Serie B [as a player in 1974].

“We have two options: if they don’t buy him, we will have a player who will have played six months in the Championship – a tough, fast, beautiful, important championship – so a more mature player will return.

“If Sunderland buy him, however, we will have made a positive capital gain for the club. These were our visions.”

So, to probably the most commonly asked question: why Sunderland?

The answer is simple. Aside from getting the chance to play regularly in one of the most competitive leagues in the world, this move has reunited Le Fee with his former manager Regis Le Bris.

Le Fee was on the books of hometown club Lorient from the age of eight and, when he progressed to both the club’s ‘B’ team and first team, on each occasion Le Bris was the man in charge.

“I know the coach and I know how he wants to play, so I am sure this will also help me,” he said after joining.

A phone call between the pair last month is said to have got the ball rolling towards the eventual move to Wearside. Watching the Netflix documentary ‘Sunderland ‘Til I Die’ after his arrival gave him a taste for what was to come.

Le Fee had built a reputation as a central midfielder over the first seven seasons of his career, occasionally filling in on either flank, and it had been expected that he would slot in in the middle of the park, providing competition for Jobe Bellingham, Dan Neil and Chris Rigg.

But with both left-wingers Romain Mundle and Tommy Watson out injured, Le Bris spotted an opportunity to play Le Fee there – and the gamble has paid off.

He has played six times for Sunderland since his debut against Burnley on January 17, with 539 minutes on the pitch in the Championship so far, which already dwarfs the 319 he racked up in Serie A. He has taken 11 shots and scored the one goal previously mentioned, and created eight chances, with one assist to his name so far.

In just a handful of games, Le Fee looks to have rediscovered himself; his first touch, vision and set-piece ability are just three of the many excellent attributes he possesses.

Le Bris’ side have not lost since Le Fee has been at the club, either. In fairness, they have lost just twice in their last 25 league games, stretching all the way back to the start of October.

So what about when Mundle and Watson have recovered and are back in first-team contention?

It is something Le Bris has considered, as the Sunderland Echo reported on Friday.

“This was the easiest spot to start and I think now after five or six games, he is starting to find the references and the connections with his team-mates,” he said.

“So we can say at the end that maybe it could be his position but at the same time, I know and we know that he could very important in the midfield as well.

“He can probably be a little bit more involved in the build-up play and we’ll look at it a little bit later when we have those [other] players available.”

Le Fee will have an important role to play when Sunderland face current Championship leaders Leeds on Monday night, live on Sky Sports Football. Right-back Jayden Bogle will be doing his homework on how to contain the Frenchman.

A win would move the Black Cats up to third in the table, one point above Burnley, two behind second-placed Sheffield United and four behind the Whites. It would ensure the four-way title race stays as tight as possible and ever so slightly increase the possibility of Le Fee staying at the club permanently.

“Every player wants to play in such a big game,” he said. “If we want to be on the top, we have to prepare for this game. We have to go to Leeds for a win. We will prepare for the win.”

A titanic battle lies ahead at Elland Road – and Le Fee will be hoping he can have a say in how it pans out.