What was once a French footballing powerhouse, Les Gones, better known as Olympique Lyonnais, has seen themselves dominate an era of French football, only to be seen as the laughingstock of Ligue 1 in 2023. Their most recent result coming in a 3-2 loss to 6th placed Lens, which leaves them rooted at the bottom of the standings.
A story that goes from riches to rags, Lyon has seen their football stock plummet since the wake of 2020, the very same season after reaching the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League under then manager, Rudi Garcia.
From the early 2000’s, Lyon had been known to be one of the start-studded sides in the Ligue 1 along with Marseille, whom they went toe-to-toe with for League titles throughout Lyon’s successful 2000’s era where they won 7 successive Ligue 1 titles between 2001 and 2008.
From having names such as Juninho, Sidney Govu, Sylvain Wiltord, Karim Benzema and Alexandre Lacazette (who’s currently back at the club), the team has struggled to reinvest and replicate their success from their glory days. With great players such as Nabil Fekir, Hossam Aouar and Jeff Rene-Adelaide to name a few, the team has only managed to reach a continental semi-final, not lifting any form of silverware since 2013 and their best finish in a league season coming back in 2016 as they finished 2nd.
Indeed, the team has struggled to lift silverware over the years, but the real downfall came with COVID-19. When the French Football Federation decided not to resume the 2019/20 season due to the COVID lockdown, an approximate figure of £40 Million was reported as losses by the club and to add to that, the TV rights deal between Ligue1 and MediaPro came to an end. The deal would’ve seen £2,75 Billion pumped into French football in the space of 4 seasons, which takes a more significant chunk of funding from the club.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, some significant names left the Lyon camp, leaving some gaping holes throughout the squad. In 2020, Bertrand Traore made way along with Martin Terrier. The following year, Bruno Guimaraes and Maxwell Cornet left for English shores and the very next season; they were joined by Lucas Paqueta who signed for West Ham United. During this free-fall period, the team lost a few other players on the free as well, Jerome Boateng is a notable name, along with Hossam Aouar, Moussa Dembele and Jason Denayer.
With failure to replace these outgoing stars, times continued to get tough for Lyon as Coaches stepped in and out of the job. Since the departure of Rudi Garcia in 2021, three coaches have taken the helm since then, with Fabio Grosso being the latest casualty.
At the moment, Director of Academy, Pierre Sage, is the interim head coach and has apparently pleased the board since taking up the reigns. It’s also reported by L’Equipe, that the club is looking to make Pierre Sage a permanent replacement to Fabio Grosso, who was attacked by the fans and subsequently sacked after just 7 games as the head coach.
Having only won 1 league game in their opening 13 games, Pierre Sage has a mammoth task to get Les Gones back on track to avoid relegation, something the new owners will dread after purchasing the club for £900 Million less than 12 months ago.
Lyon take on Marseille on Wednesday night at the Stade Velodrome for the Choc Des Olympiques.