At the same time, they have one of the best football academies.
Lyon students rarely reach the world level
Many players who had the potential to become one of the best in world football have gone through the school of the French team. In many ways this was facilitated by the success of the club in the 2000s, when Lyon was on the move, repeatedly became the champion of France and in the European arena gave battles with such giants as Real and Barcelona.
Just at the end of the zero years, Karim Benzema, who recently became the owner of the Ballon d’Or, began to shine in Lyon. Since then and until today, he has been undoubtedly the best player to have attended the French club’s youth academy. Over the past ten years, many artists can be listed who could claim to compete with Karim for this title: Hugo Lloris, Nabil Fekir, Alexandre Lacazette, Tanguy Ndombele, Anthony Martial, Houssem Aouar, Samuel Umtiti, Corentin Tolisso, Ryan Cherki.
Some of them went to a top-level club at an early age, someone managed to impress the crowd in Lyon and then moved to another team, and someone, like Houssem Aouard, stayed at the club because he started stagnate and degrade.
Hugo Lloris, Ndombele, Umtiti, Tolisso, Lacazette and Martial left their home team at a relatively young age, but only Lloris was able to really gain a foothold in the new team. He already now he can be called a legend of Tottenham. Ndombele, who followed the same path, became the most expensive acquisition of the Londoners, but he could not establish himself in their composition and for the second season in a row he is wandering on lease – first to the same Lyon, and now to Napoli.
Something similar happened with Lacazette and Tolisso, but with some differences. The French striker managed to captain Arsenal, play more than two hundred matches for the Gunners and return to his home club. Corentin, in turn, did not gain a foothold in the Bayern Munich base due to injuries and returned to France five years later. Furthermore, both players moved to Lyon as free agents.
Martial and Umtiti, like Tolisso, were unable to gain a foothold in their clubs due to injury. Anthony moved to Manchester United as one of their most promising stars, while Samuel, already at Barcelona, was ranked by many on a par with the best centre-backs in the world.
As for Aouar, he had a chance to move in the summer of 2020 to Juve, Bayern and PSG. Arsenal also conducted substantial negotiations on the player and even offered him 40 + 10 million euros, but he was refused, after which the midfielder withered. In the summer, he’s likely to leave the team as a free agent. The most likely club he will go to is German side Eintracht.
The story of Nabil Fekir deserves a special mention. He could have moved to Liverpool in 2018 when Phil Coutinho left the team. The Frenchman was called the ideal replacement for the Brazilian, he even managed to undergo a medical examination and give an interview to the Reds club channel, but suddenly a person close to Nabil wedged himself into the situation, due to whose requests the Liverpool withdrew from the deal, citing the Frenchman’s problems with his knee. Now Fekir is the leader of Real Betis and he does it quite well, but the situation with the knee still discourages the big clubs from buying him.
In the early 1920s, Lyon sank heavily financially.
Due to the suspension and early end of the French season in March 2020, Lyon finished the tournament in 7th place, one point behind Nice. This meant that Olimpik ended their streak of 23 consecutive European campaigns.
The absence of European competitions in the 20/21 season has launched a chain of financial problems for the club. Losses increased from 36 million to 109 – only worse for PSG. Revenues dropped from 181 to 118 million euros, the worst result since the 14/15 season. Ticket sales also fell and television revenue plummeted, both due to poor team performance and a poorly drafted contract.
From a team that has always stood out for its financial health and has been an example for many, Lyon has turned into a problematic team in all respects. With their decisions, the leadership of League 1 only aggravated the situation. They made the wrong choice regarding the TV show, and now the French league is far behind the earnings of other major leagues in Europe. For comparison – in the covid season Premier League earned 3.6 billion euros, La Liga – 2, Bundesliga – 1.4, Serie A – 1.3.
The new owner will make changes to the development structure of the team
In December 2022, Lyon changed hands. Known to many, Jean-Michel Ola lost 77.5% of the shares to the investment group Eagle Football Holdings. This fund also owns shares in a number of other teams, including the English ‘Crystal Palace’.
Investment group owner John Textor believes the use of the club chain could help with economic recovery and problem solving, as well as create space for co-sponsorship deals. At the same time, according to the words of the official, the teams under his tutelage will not have any privileges over each other, as this harms healthy competition. As an example of poor development, he cites the Red Bull and City Football Group systems, whose leading teams recently fought in the 1/8 of the Champions League.
Already in winter there was a good example of Textor’s work. He transferred winger Geoffinho from his home Botafogo to Lyon for a conditional payment of 10 million euros. This could be an indicator of how Lyon will act in the future. The fact that Textor has many connections and recently secured investments of over 100 million euros can also help the development.
