Olympique Lyonnais
Founded: 1899
Owners: OL Groupe
President: Jean-Michel Aulas
Captain: Anthony Lopes
Home Ground: Groupama Stadium
Country: France
League: Ligue 1
Nicknames: Les Gones (The Kids), Lyon, OL
Rivalries: Saint-Etienne, Marseille, Bordeaux, PSG, Grenoble, AS Lyon Duchère
Olympique Lyonnais, commonly referred to as simply Lyon or OL, is a French professional football club based in Lyon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The club plays in France’s highest football division – Ligue 1.
The club was established in 1950 and won its first Ligue 1 championship in 2002, starting a national record-setting streak of seven successive titles.
Lyon has also won eight Trophées des Champions, five Coupes de France, and three Ligue 2 titles.
Lyon has participated in the UEFA Champions League seventeen times, and during the 2009–10 season, reached the semifinals of the competition for the first time after three previous quarterfinal appearances.
They once again reached this stage in the 2019–20 season. Olympique Lyonnais plays its home matches at the 59,186-seat Parc Olympique Lyonnais, commercially known as the Groupama Stadium, in Décines-Charpieu, a suburb of Lyon. The club’s home colours are white, red and blue. Lyon was a member of the G14 group of leading European football clubs and are founder members of its successor, the European Club Association.
Lyon are one of the most supported clubs in France, along with Paris Saint-Germain and Olympique de Marseille. The club’s nickname, Les Gones, means “The Kids” in Lyon’s regional dialect of Franco-Provençal.
They have a long-standing rivalry with nearby club Saint-Étienne, with whom they contest the Derby Rhône-Alpes. Lyon have been owned by Jean-Michel Aulas since 1987.
History
Olympique Lyonnais was initially formed under the multisports club Lyon Olympique Universitaire, which 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 champion of the second division, securing promotion to the first division.
The club maintained its first division place for the remainder of the decade, excluding a year’s stint in the second division for the 1953–54 season.
Lyon achieved moderate success during the 1960s and 1970s with the likes of Fleury Di Nallo, Néstor Combin, Serge Chiesa, Bernard Lacombe and Jean Djorkaeff playing major roles.
Under manager Lucien Jasseron, Lyon won its first-ever Coupe de France title defeating Bordeaux 2–0 in the 1963–64 season. The club also performed respectably in the league under Jasseron’s reign until the 1965–66 season, when Lyon finished 16th, 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 in the 1966–67 season.
Lyon was managed by former Lyon legend Aimé Mignot heading into the 1970s. Under Mignot’s helm, Lyon won its third Coupe de France title in 1972–73, beating Nantes 2–1.
In June 1987, Lyon was bought by Rhône businessman Jean-Michel Aulas who took control of the club aiming to turn Lyon into an established Ligue 1 side.
His ambitious plan, titled OL – Europe, was designed to develop the club at the European level and back into the first division within a period 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 whoever he saw fit to help the team reach the first division.
They went on to accomplish this in Domenech’s first season in charge. Lyon achieved its zenith under Domenech when it qualified for the UEFA Cup.
For the remainder of his tenure, however, the club underachieved. Domenech was replaced by former French international Jean Tigana, who led the team to an impressive second place in the 1994–95 season.
At the start of the new millennium, Lyon began to achieve greater success in French football. The club established itself as the premier club in France defeating Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain and also became France’s richest club as well as one of the most popular.
Lyon became known for developing promising talent who went on to achieve greatness not only in France, but also abroad and internationally. Notable examples include Michael Essien, Florent Malouda, Sidney Govou, Juninho, Cris, Eric Abidal, Mahamadou Diarra, Patrick Müller and Karim Benzema.
Lyon won its first-ever Ligue 1 championship in 2002, starting a national record-breaking streak of seven successive titles. During that run, the club also won one Coupe de France title, its first Coupe de la Ligue title and a record six Trophée des Champions.
The club also performed well in UEFA competitions, reaching as far as the quarter-finals on three occasions and the semi-finals in 2010 in the UEFA Champions League.
Lyon’s streak and consistent dominance of French football came to an end during the 2008–09 season when it lost the title to Bordeaux.
In the 2019-20 season, Lyon suffered a poor start to the season, and ended the season in seventh place, as the league was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Lyon also reached the final of the Coupe de la Ligue, however, they eventually lost to Paris Saint-Germain 6-5 on penalties.
Ultimately, this meant that Lyon failed to qualify for European competition for the first time in 24 years.
In the Champions League, Lyon was more successful, defeating Juventus in the round of 16 and Manchester City in the quarterfinal to reach the semifinals for the first time in 10 years. However, they eventually lost 3-0 in the semifinal to Bayern Munich, eliminating Lyon from the competition.