Olympique Lyonnais

Lyon

Full name

Olympique Lyonnais

Nickname(s)

Les Gones (The Kids)
Lyon
OL

Founded

1899/1950^[1]

Ground

Stade de Gerland, Lyon
(Capacity: 40,494^[2])

Chairman

Jean-Michel Aulas

Manager

Claude Puel

League

Ligue 1

2009–10

L1, 2nd

Home colours

Away colours

Third colours

Current season

Olympique Lyonnais (French pronunciation: [ɔlɛ̃pik ljɔnɛ]; commonly referred to as Olympique Lyon, Lyon, or simply OL) is a French association football club based in Lyon. They play in France's highest football division, Ligue 1.

The club was formed as Lyon Olympique Universitaire in 1899, according to many supporters and sport historians, but was nationally established as a club in 1950. Their most successful period has been the 21st century. The club won their first ever Ligue 1 championship in 2002, starting a national record-breaking streak of seven successive titles. Lyon have also won a record seven Trophée des Champions, four Coupe de France titles, and three Ligue 2 Championships. They have appeared in the UEFA Champions League eleven times and, during the 2009–10 season, reached the semi-finals of the competition for the first time after three previous quarter-final appearances.

Olympique Lyonnais play their home matches at the 41,044-seat Stade de Gerland in Lyon. In 2013, they plan to move into their new stadia, tentatively named OL Land, in Décines-Charpieu, a suburb of Lyon. The club's home colours are white, red and blue. Lyon were a member of the G14 group of leading European football clubs and are founder members of its successor, the European Club Association. The chairman of Lyon is Jean-Michel Aulas and club is managed by Claude Puel.

Olympique Lyonnais is one of the most popular clubs in France. About 11% of the country's population support the club. Lyon share this number with Paris Saint-Germain and only trail Olympique de Marseille.^[3] Lyon do, however, hold the honor of being the richest club in the country having generated an annual revenue stream of €139.6 million for the 2008–09 season, according to accountants Deloitte.^[4]

Olympique Lyonnais also has a successful women's football team having won their league a record seven times, the last being the 2008–09 season. The women's team has also won three Challenge de France titles.

The club's nickname, Les Gones, means "The Kids" in Lyon's regional dialect of Arpitan language.

History

Olympique Lyonnais was, initially, formed under the multisports club Lyon Olympique Universitaire, who was originally formed in 1896 as Racing Club de Lyon. Following numerous internal disagreements regarding the cohabitation of amateurs and professionals within the club, then-manager of the club Félix Louot and his entourage contemplated forming their own club. On 3 August 1950, Louot's plan came to fruition when Olympique Lyonnais was officially founded by Dr. Albert Trillat and numerous others. The club's first manager was Oscar Heisserer and, on 26 August 1950, played its first official match defeating CA Paris-Charenton 3–0 in front of 3,000 supporters. In just the club's second year of existence, Lyon was crowned champions of the second division moving up to the first division. The club maintained their first division place for the remainder of the decade, excluding a year's stint in the second division for the 1953–1954 season.

Lyon achieved moderate success during the 1960s and 70s with the likes of Fleury Di Nallo, Nestor Combin, Serge Chiesa, Bernard Lacombe, and Jean Djorkaeff playing major roles. Under manager Lucien Jasseron, Lyon won their first-ever Coupe de France title defeating Bordeaux 2–0 in the 1964 edition of the competition. The club also performed respectably in the league under Jasseron's reign until the 1965–66 season, when Lyon finished 16^th, which ultimately led to Jasseron's departure. His replacement was Louis Hon, who helped Lyon win their second Coupe de France title after defeating Sochaux 3–1 during the 1966–67 season. Lyon were managed by former Lyon legend Aimé Mignot heading into the 70s. Under Mignot's helm, Lyon won their third Coupe de France title during the 1972–73 season, after defeating Nantes 2–1.

In June 1987, Olympique Lyonnais was purchased by Rhône businessman Jean-Michel Aulas who took control of the club with the objective of turning Lyon into an established Ligue 1 side. His ambitious plan, titled OL – Europe, was designed to develop the club on the European level and back into the first division within a time-frame of no more than four years. The first manager under the new hierarchy was Raymond Domenech. The aspiring chairman gave Domenech carte blanche to recruit whomever player they saw fit to help the team reach the first division. They proceeded to accomplish this feat in Domenech's first season in charge. Lyon achieved their zenith under Domenech when they qualified for the UEFA Cup. Unfortunately, for the remainder of his tenure the club underachieved severely. Domenech was later replaced by former French international Jean Tigana, who led the team to an impressive 2^nd place finish during the 1994–95 season.

At the start of the new millennium, Olympique Lyonnais began to achieve unlimited success in French football. During this time, the club established themselves as the premiere club in France upending the likes of Olympique de Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain and also becoming the country's richest club and one of the most popular. Lyon became known for developing promising talent, who would not only achieve greatness in France, but also abroad and internationally. Notable examples include Michael Essien, Florent Malouda, Juninho Pernambucano, Cris, Éric Abidal, Mahamadou Diarra, Patrick Müller, and Karim Benzema, to name a few. Lyon won their first ever Ligue 1 championship in 2002, starting a national record-breaking streak of seven successive titles. During that span, the club also won one Coupe de France title, their first Coupe de la Ligue title, and a record six Trophée des Champions. The club also performed well in UEFA competition reaching as far as the quarter-finals on three occasions in the UEFA Champions League. Lyon's streak and consistent dominance of French football came to an end during the 2008–09 season, when they were dethroned of their league title by Bordeaux.

Ownership and finances

Olympique Lyonnais is owned by Rhône businessman Jean-Michel Aulas, who acquired the club on 15 June 1987. He serves as the founder and chief operating officer of CEGID (Compagnie Européenne de Gestion par l'Informatique Décentralisée). After ridding the club of its debt, Aulas restructured the club's management and reorganized the finances and, in a span of two decades, transformed the club from a second division team into one of the richest football clubs in the world. However, Aulas has been lambasted for, according to critics, running the club as if it were a business. The club currently operates on the European Stock Exchange under the name OL Groupe, initialed OLG.^[5]

In April 2008, business magazine Forbes ranked Lyon as the thirteenth most valuable football team in the world. The magazine valued the club at $408 million (€275.6m), excluding debt.^[6] On 12 February 2009, accountants Deloitte released their annual Deloitte Football Money League. In the report, Lyon were rated in the twelfth spot, reportedly bringing in an annual revenue of €155.7 million for the 2007–08 season, which ranks among the world's best football clubs in terms of revenue.^[4]

Aulas currently serves on the board for the European Club Association, a sports organization representing football clubs in Europe. He was also the last president of the now-defunct G-14 organization.

As of 10 November 2009.

Club Management

President and Chairman	Jean-Michel Aulas
Managing Director	Thierry Sauvage
Sporting Director	Marino Faccioli
Director of Communications	Olivier Blanc
Commercial Director	Olivier Bernardeau
Marketing Director	Didier Kermarrec
Security Director	Annie Saladin
Director of Special Operations	Mathieu Giraud
Special Advisor	Bernard Lacombe

Stadium

View of the Stade de Gerland.

Olympique Lyonnais has played at the Stade de Gerland since 1950, the year of the club's foundation. In 1910, the mayor of Lyon, Édouard Herriot, came up with the idea to develop and build a sports stadia with an athletics track and a velodrome in the city. In 1912, the stadium was officially mandated and local architect Tony Garnier was given the reins to designing and constructing it. Construction began in 1914 with hopes that the stadia would be completed before the International Exhibition of 1914. However, due to World War I, construction was temporarily halted, but resumed following its conclusion in 1919. By 1920, the stadium was completely functional. In 1926, the Stade de Gerland was inaugurated by Herriot.

Virage Sud entrance to the stadium.

Olympique Lyonnais began play at the Gerland in 1950 and have remained at the stadium since. The stadia originally had a cycling track, but was removed in order to increased the seating capacity to 50,000. In 1984, minor renovations were made to the stadium by architect Rene Gagis. This included construction of the Jean Bouin and Jean Jaurès stands. Further renovations were needed to prepare the stadium for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, as by that time FIFA had mandated that all stadiums used for international matches, including the World Cup, had to be all-seated. The north and south stands, known as the Jean Jaurès and Jean Bouin stand, respectively, were completely knocked down and rebuilt, and the athletics track that had remained, even after the cycling track had been removed, was taken out. The renovations were done by architect Albert Constantin. The new incarnation of Gerland has a maximum capacity of 40,494.^[7]

On 1 September 2008, Olympique Lyonnais president Jean-Michel Aulas announced plans to create a new 60,000-seat stadium, tentatively called OL Land, to be built on 50 hectares of land located in Décines-Charpieu, a suburb of Lyon. The stadium, if built, will also include state-of-the-art sporting facilities, two hotels, a leisure center, and commercial and business offices.

On 13 October 2008, the project was agreed upon by the State, the General Council of Rhône, the Grand Lyon, SYTRAL, and the municipality of Décines for construction with approximately €180 million of public money being used and between €60–80 million coming from the Urban Community of Lyon.^[8] However, since the announcement, the club's efforts to get the stadium off the ground has been hindered mainly due to slow administrative procedures, political interests, and various opposition groups, who view the stadium as financially, ecologically, and socially wrong for the taxpayers and community of Décines. The project is currently in limbo, but most estimate that the stadium will be completed by 2013.^[9]

On 22 September 2009, French newspaper L'Equipe reported that OL Land had been selected by the French Football Federation as one of the twelve stadiums to be used in the country's bidding for UEFA Euro 2016.^[10] The FFF officially made their selections on 11 November 2009 and the city of Lyon was selected as a site to host matches during the tournament.^[11]

Former Lyon player Karim Benzema training at the Centre Tola Vologe.

Training center

The Centre Tola Vologe is the training center and club headquarters of Olympique Lyonnais. It is located in the city of Lyon, not far from the Stade de Gerland. The facility is named after Anatole Tologe, commonly called Tola Vologe, who was a Lyon sportsmen and was murdered by the Gestapo during World War II. The facility is known for its high-level training^[12] and several prominent players have passed through the youth training center. These include Karim Benzema, Hatem Ben Arfa, Sidney Govou, and Ludovic Giuly. The center's hosts training sessions for the senior team and also serves as the home facility for the club's reserve, youth (both male and female), and female sides, who both play their home matches at the Plaine des Jeux de Gerland. Former Lyon player Alain Olio is the current director of the centre.

Colours and kits

Lyon won six of their seven league titles wearing this kit.

Since the club's foundation, the primary colors have been red, blue, and white, with the latter being the most predominant of the three. During the early years of the club's existence, Olympique Lyonnais primarily played in all-white uniforms. In 1955, Lyon officials decided to add a red and blue scapular and blue shorts to the combination.^[13] In 1961, the scapular tradition was disbanded and the two strips of red and blue were shaped horizontally.^[14] After six years, the club returned to the all-white uniforms, but kept intact the red and blue stripes, but, instead of keeping them horizontally, inserted them vertically and on the left side of the shirt.^[15] Lyon began wearing the shirt during the 1970–71 season and wore the kits up until the 1975–76 season. For the 2002–03 season, chairman Jean-Michel Aulas announced that the club would return the kits. Lyon wore them, with several different modifications every year, for six of their seven consecutive titles.

In 1976, the club endured a drastic change to their kits, ditching the all-white uniforms for an all-red style, akin to English club Liverpool. The club wore the kits up until the 1989–90 season, with the 1977–78 and 1978–79 seasons being excluded due to the club adding navy blue vertical stripes to the shirt that was deemed unsuccessful.^[16] Following the 1989–90 season, the club returned to the all-white kits and, at the start of the 1995–96 season, the club returned the vertical stripes, but opted to insert them in the center of the shirt, instead of to the left. The club kept this style until the 2001–02 season. For the 2009–10 season, Lyon returned the horizontal red and blue stripes.

Supporters

View of the Virage Nord (Bad Gones location) from the Virage Sud.

Olympique Lyonnais has a highly-active and loyal fanbase composed of many groups of supporters. One of the club's most notable supporters group is Bad Gones (Bad Kids). The Bad Gones were established in 1987 around the time of Jean-Michel Aulas's purchase of the team and occupy the Virage Nord area of the Stade de Gerland. During the 2007–08 season, the group celebrated its 20^th anniversary. The Bad Gones have a very strong reputation in Europe, due to the club's control of Ligue 1, as well as Lyon's continued appearances in the UEFA Champions League.

Lyon supporters at the Coupe de France Final 2008

Another notable supporters group is the Cosa Nostra Lyon, who occupy the Virage Sud area of the stadium. The group was created in 2007 as a result of a merger between two groups, the Lugdunums, which had existed since 1993 and Nucleo Ultra, which formed in 2000. The merger was created to achieve a sense of stability among supporters. The group is no longer recognized by the club, but continues to operate in a functional manner. Other support groups include the Hex@gones, which was formed in 2000 and sit in the Virage Sud area, the Gastrogones, who occupy the Jean Bouin stand, and the O'Elles Club, who sit in the Jean Jaurès stand.

The club also has support groups that are based in areas outside of the city of Lyon. The Gones 58 supporters comes from the department of Nièvre in Bourgogne, while Gones 26 origins come from the department of Drôme in nearby Valence. Three minor support groups in Septimagones, Loups Marchois, and Dauphigones comes from the commune of Hérépian, the department of Creuse, and the department of Isère, respectively.

Statistics and records

Player	Matches
Serge Chiesa	541
Grégory Coupet	518
Fleury Di Nallo	489
Yves Chauveau	438
Sidney Govou	412
Aimé Mignot	400
Juninho	344
Player	Goals
Fleury Di Nallo	182
Serge Chiesa	134
Bernard Lacombe	128
Juninho	100
Sonny Anderson	91
Nestor Combin	78
Sidney Govou	77

Lyon's first competitive game was a 3–0 victory against CA Paris-Charenton on 26 August 1950. Since the club's foundation in 1950, they have played 48 seasons in France's highest football division, which totals 1,768 matches. Of the 1,768, they achieved 686 victories, drew 442 matches, and lost 602 contests. Of the 9 seasons the club played in Ligue 2, they contested 310 matches, winning 160 matches, drawing 84 times, and losing only 56. Lyon achieved their 1,000th victory during the 2003–04 season after defeating Strasbourg.

Juninho, converted a record 44 free kicks at Lyon.

The Moroccan-born French midfielder Serge Chiesa holds Lyon overall appearance record having played in 541 matches over the course of 14 seasons from 1969 to 1983. Following him is former goalkeeper Grégory Coupet who contested 518 matches over the course of 11 seasons from 1997 to 2008. Along with Sidney Govou, Coupet also has the distinction of being the only player in Lyon's history to win all four domestic French titles having been a part of all seven Ligue 1 titles, the club's Coupe de France triumph in 2008, the only Coupe de la Ligue win in 2001, and six of the seven Trophée Des Champions titles. Govou, Coupet, and Juninho share the honor of being only Lyon players who were a part of all seven title runs.

The club's all-time leading scorer is Fleury Di Nallo, who scored 182 goals while at the club from 1960 to 1974. Di Nallo is also third behind Chiesa and Coupet in all time appearances having played in 489 matches during his 14-year stint at the club. Despite Di Nallo's impressive goalscoring record, he doesn't hold the record for most goals scored during a league season. That distinction goes to Bourg-en-Bresse-born André Guy who notched 25 goals, which he attained in the 1968–69 season.

Lyon's biggest victory is 10–0, which occurred of two occasions against Ajaccio in the 1953–54 edition of the Coupe de France and, two seasons later, against Delle in the 1955–56 edition of the competition. Lyon's biggest league victory is 7–0 and also occurred on two occasions. The first being during the 1966–67 season against Angers and the second being against Marseille during the 1997–98 season. The club's biggest victory on the European stage occurred during the 1974–75 season. Lyon hammered Luxembourg-based club FA Red Boys Differdange 7–0.

Rivalries

Historically, Lyon has had a healthy rivalry with fellow Ligue 1 club Saint-Étienne, whom they contest the Derby du Rhône (Rhône derby) with. However, since the club's dominance at the start of the new millennium, they have established rivalries with Marseille, Bordeaux, Paris Saint-Germain, and Lille. Lyon also share minor rivalries with fellow Rhône-Alpes clubs Grenoble and AS Lyon Duchère.

The Saint-Étienne rivalry began during the 1960s when Lyon established permanent residency in the French first division. The Arpitan rivalry stems from both clubs close proximity of each other, separated by just 38 miles, as well as historical social and cultural difference between the two cities where they are based; Lyon cited as being more upper-class, while Saint-Étienne is cited as being more working-class. The derby also pits "the recently most successful French club" (Lyon) against "the formerly biggest French club" (Saint-Étienne) and is often cited as one of the high-points of the Ligue 1 season.

Lyon's rivalry with Olympique de Marseille goes back to 23 September 1945, when the clubs contested their first match. The derby, often called Choc des Olympiques (Clash of the Olympics), is often cited as being particularly important as both clubs are of high standard in French football and the championship is regularly decided between the two. Marseille, Saint-Étienne, Lyon are the only French clubs to have won the French first division four straight times with Marseille doing it on two occasions.

Players

First-team squad

As of 31 August 2010

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Position	Player
1	GK	Hugo Lloris
2	DF	Lamine Gassama
3	DF	Cris (captain)
4	DF	Pape Diakhaté (on loan from Dynamo Kyiv)
5	DF	Dejan Lovren
6	MF	Kim Källström
7	FW	Jimmy Briand
8	MF	Miralem Pjanić
9	FW	Lisandro López
10	MF	Ederson
11	MF	Michel Bastos
12	DF	Timothée Kolodziejczak
13	DF	Anthony Réveillère
15	FW	Harry Novillo

No.	Position	Player
17	MF	Jean II Makoun
18	FW	Bafétimbi Gomis
19	MF	César Delgado
20	DF	Aly Cissokho
21	MF	Maxime Gonalons
22	MF	Clément Grenier
24	MF	Jérémy Pied
28	MF	Jérémy Toulalan (vice-captain)
29	MF	Yoann Gourcuff
30	GK	Rémy Vercoutre
35	DF	Nicolas Seguin
38	FW	Alexandre Lacazette
39	FW	Ishak Belfodil

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Position	Player
46	DF	Loïc Abenzoar (on loan at Arles-Avignon until the end of the 2010–11 Ligue 1 season)
—	DF	John Mensah (on loan at Sunderland until the end of the 2010–11 Premier League season or if player makes 25 club appearances)
—	FW	Yannis Tafer (on loan at Toulouse until the end of the 2010–11 Ligue 1 season)

Reserve squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Position	Player
31	MF	Saïd Mehamha
32	FW	Grégoire Puel
35	DF	Nicolas Seguin
36	DF	Sébastien Faure
37	DF	Thomas Fontaine
40	GK	Antony Lopes
41	MF	Maxime Blanc

No.	Position	Player
43	DF	Samuel Umtiti
44	DF	Ousmane N'Diaye
45	GK	Mathieu Gorgelin
47	MF	Rachid Ghezzal
48	MF	Enzo Reale
49	MF	Jordan Ferri
50	MF	Ali Touncara

Former players

For a complete list of former Olympique Lyonnais players with a Wikipedia article, see here.

Retired numbers

16 – in recognition of goalkeeper Luc Borrelli. Borrelli was killed in a road accident in February 1999.

17 – in recognition of midfielder Marc-Vivien Foé. Foé died while playing for Cameroon in the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup at Stade de Gerland, Lyon. The number was brought out of retirement in 2008 to allow Cameroonian player Jean Makoun to wear it.

Award winners

UNFP Player of the Year

The following players have won the UNFP Player of the Year whilst playing for Lyon:

Michael Essien – 2005
Juninho – 2006
Florent Malouda – 2007
Karim Benzema – 2008
Lisandro Lopez – 2010

Bravo Award

The following players have won the Bravo Award award whilst playing for Lyon:

Karim Benzema – 2008

Managers

Claude Puel, manager of Lyon since 2008

Olympique Lyonnais has had 22 permanent managers and two caretaker managers since the club's first appointed Oscar Heisserer as a professional manager in 1950. Heisserer also served as the first player-coach of the club, coming out of retirement to play during his final season at the club. The longest-serving manager in terms of time was Aimé Mignot, who managed Lyon for 8 years from 1968 to 1976. Alain Perrin, who managed the club from 2007–2008, was the first Lyon manager to achieve the double.

Current coaching staff

As of 31 October 2009.^[19]

Position	Name	Nationality
Manager	Claude Puel	French
Assistant manager	Patrick Collot	French
Assistant manager	Bruno Genesio	French
First team coach	Rémi Garde	French
Striker Coach	Sonny Anderson	Brazilian
Goalkeeping Coach	Joël Bats	French
Fitness Coach	Alexandre Dellal	French
Reserve team coach	Robert Valette	French
Physiotherapist	Jean-Jacques Amprino	French
Kinesiotherapy	Patrick Perret	French
Kinesiotherapy	Abdeljelil Redissi	French
Special Advisor	Bernard Lacombe	French

Honours

Lyon has won Ligue 1 seven times, which ranks tied for 4^th in French football history. Lyon has the distinction of starting a national record-breaking streak of seven successive titles beginning with the 2001–02 season. The club has also been crowned champions of Ligue 2 three times, won four Coupe de France titles, one Coupe de la Ligue title, and a record seven Trophée des Champions. Though the club is a regular participant in the UEFA Champions League, they have only reached as far as the semifinals, which was accomplished during the during the 2009–10 season. Lyon has won the UEFA Intertoto Cup, achieving this honor in 1997.

Domestic

League

Ligue 1 (Champions of France) (level 1)

Winners (7): 2001–02, 2002–03, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08

Ligue 2 (level 2)

Winners (3): 1950–51, 1953–54, 1988–89

USFSA Lyonnaise French Championship

Winners (4): 1906, 1907, 1910, 1913

French Championship (Southern Pool)

Winners (1): 1944–45

Cups

Coupe de France

Winners (4): 1964, 1967, 1973, 2008

Coupe de la Ligue

Winners (1): 2001

Trophée des Champions

Winners (7): 1973, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007

European

UEFA Intertoto Cup

Winners (1): 1997