A long way back to the top | OneFootball

Home game highlight in the UEFA Europa League: Olympique Lyon will be the visitors on Thursday (21:00 CEST / Live Ticker at tsg-hoffenheim.de). TSG magazine SPIELFELD has taken a closer look at the former serial champions of France.

Olympique Lyon are regarded as an outstanding breeding ground for talent. The club from south-east France last year made around €75 million from the sales of the two 20-year-olds: Bradley Barcola (to Paris Saint-Germain) and Castello Lukeba (to RB Leipzig). Other expensive departures such as Tanguy Ndombele, Alexandre Lacazette, Ferland Mendy or, more recently, Michael Essien and Karim Benzema, vindicate Lyon's talent factory. However, the transfer strategy this summer has deviated remarkably from the norm: While Lyon have generated a transfer surplus almost every year in the past, the club spent more money than it made this year and invested around €150 million in the squad according to media reports. One only young player was signed for a lot of money, Ernest Nuamah (20), while the other multi-million transfers such as Moussa Niakhate (28), Orel Mangala (26), EURO top scorer Georges Mikautadze (23) and Said Benrahma (28) are in the much vaunted prime of their careers.

The transfer offensive can undoubtedly be interpreted as an attack on Paris Saint-Germain. After the outstanding years of the noughties – in which Lyon became French champions from 2002 to 2008 – the capital club assumed supremacy thanks to Qatari investors. When the Parisians have stumbled over the past 10 years, other clubs such as AS Monaco and OSC Lille have benefited. Lyon have even missed out on European football three times over the past five seasons. The days when Juninho scored dreamy free-kicks and Gregory Coupet drove strikers to despair between the sticks are long gone.

Nonetheless, the club's record of seven successive titles is unrivalled, with PSG never managing more than four in a row – despite their many millions and big stars. But the historic record means little to president and majority shareholder John Textor, who also holds shares in Crystal Palace, RWD Molenbeek and Botafogo. He wants to do everything in his (financial) power to get OL out of the mediocrity into which they have slipped in recent years. However, the seven-time French champions have made a poor start to the season and have picked up 14 points in their first nine games, allowing PSG to pull nine points clear already. In the Europa League, Lyon have followed up two wins in their first games with a defeat: Lyon remained unbeaten against Olympiacos (2-0) and away to Rangers (4-1) before losing (1-0) to Beşiktaş. Nonetheless, hopes are high that they will again spring a surprise in Europe after reaching the 2020 UEFA Champions League semi-finals (3-0 loss to FC Bayern Munich).