Systematically on the podium of the best French training centers since the launch of an annual evaluation by the National Technical Directorate (DTN) of the FFF in 2020-2021, and even winner in 2022, Olympique Lyonnais apparently has nothing lost his superb youth. The “formidable academy” of OL dear to Jean-Michel Aulas, long perceived as the European reference alongside Barça, nevertheless hides a completely different reality, while the first team travels this Wednesday (6 p.m.) to Bourgoin -Jallieu (Isère) in the round of 16 of the Coupe de France.
OL are only 7th in the national U17 championship, behind rival Saint-Etienne but also three amateur clubs, Saint-Priest, Air Bel and Cavigal Nice. Same worrying observation for the national U19s, who are vegetating in the soft underbelly (8th) alongside Andrézieux-Bouthéon. Only the club's reserve team, relegated to National 3 (5th division) in 2023, did a little better with a 5th place.
Only Enzo Molebe appeared among the pros
Add to this that OL have not played in the Youth League since 2020 and that only two players from the club (Enzo Molebe in U18 and Rémi Himbert in U17) were part of the last youth selections for the French team, from U16 to U20. Another anomaly when we remember the many generations of Lyon players trusting the Bleuets.
Likewise, Enzo Molebe (17 years old) is the only Lyonnais under the age of 21 to have joined the professional squad this season, with two short appearances so far. Is this proof that OL has turned its back on its formative DNA?
“The people in office have to rebuild everything”
“OL has always been a pioneer in training in France, whether with José Broissart, Georges Prost, Rémi Garde and Stéphane Roche,” recalls former professional goalkeeper Gilles Rousset, trainer at OL for fifteen years. There was a methodology with a lot of repeated scales, a requirement and a real Lyon soul. Everything was in place so as not to make young people skip ahead, when we see that Karim Benzema had completed his two full seasons in U17. And then some joined the club to structure training and pre-training, and they gained ground…”
An observation shared by Armand Garrido, the last trainer to have won a national championship with Lyon, in 2014 in the U17 category: “It saddens me to have witnessed this training disaster without being able to prevent it. The people in office today have inherited a bad situation, with everything to rebuild. We no longer recognize the OL academy. »
In the dock, both place above all Jean-François Vulliez, director of the academy from 2017 to 2023. They accuse him of no longer having consulted the coaches to define the young people retained or not by the club at the end of season, for having removed the U16 League team, but above all for having “established a very heavy atmosphere”.
“We left football”
“We were like a family for a long time with all the trainers,” remembers Gilles Rousset. We were all servants of the club, then some, Jean-François Vulliez in the lead, with a university and scientific discourse, used the club. They spoke the same language as the leaders, they had the knowledge and we the know-how. We have put obstacles in the way of all the historical trainers. » Now sports coordinator at Bourgoin-Jallieu, and therefore opposed to OL this Wednesday, Armand Garrido specifies.
« Players came to pick me up from the field to take them to yoga or do NeuroTracker [outil d’entraînement cognitif]. We left football and completely left competition aside. »
Having left Lyon last summer, Jean-François Vulliez responds to the criticisms of the two ex-OL trainers: “It's a bad trial of intent. We evolved the training as Rémi Garde requested when I arrived in Lyon, and developments always lead to tensions and resistance to change from some.”
Director of the training center before taking charge of the professional team (from 2011 to 2014), Rémi Garde wanted to develop the Lyon methodology, when Jean-François Vulliez arrived at the club in 2011 with Jean-Yves Ogier, long-time manager of preformation. Then an audit requested by Jean-Michel Aulas, and led by Gérard Houllier in 2016, established for good the methods used by Jean-François Vulliez.
The era of mental support, yoga and data
“The idea was to always be one step ahead in supporting young people,” summarizes the man who coached OL in Ligue 1 against Le Havre (0-0) last season, between the Laurent Blanc eras and Fabio Grosso. From 2014 onwards, mental support for players, introduction to yoga, work on the leadership and the cognitive dimension, but also video analysis sessions and the implementation of GPS sensors to analyze player data.
“We released a lot of European level players over the generations from 2000 to 2003 [Caqueret, Gouiri, Kalulu, Bard, Lukeba, Barcola, Gusto et Cherki]recalls Jean-François Vulliez. Then Mamadou Sarr (19 years old) in my opinion could have played in Ligue 1 with OL but he was transferred to Strasbourg. An era has opened with a new owner, and we need to see his strategy regarding young people. »
In this regard, John Textor is able to attend from the inside, with passion, the entire U15 tournament in Neuville-sur-Saône in May 2024, four months before announcing that his economic model will be more about recruiting confirmed players as well as promoting the emergence of the club's hopes in Ligue 1.
The move to Meyzieu, “THE break”
“Unlike Barcola who wanted to leave and play for PSG, I want to see the young people from our academy dream of becoming the next Juninho, Fekir and Benzema,” said the American owner on RMC on Monday. In any case, he understood that the move of the academy to Meyzieu in 2016 was clearly singled out as one of the reasons for the training difficulties. At the time, Jean-Michel Aulas had favored his OL Vallée project (restaurants, bowling, surf wave indoor…) around Parc OL and the Groupama OL Training Center (GOLTC).
« This is THE break. We quickly alerted management because, apart from being in prefabs, with a single grass pitch and four synthetics, there was no contact between Décines and Meyzieu. The unity of place and thought of Tola Vologe has completely disintegrated. We lost a real center of life, where the kids could watch the hitting sessions of Juninho and Karim Benzema. There was interaction and the whole club was then interested in the youth training. »
Jean-François Vulliez confirms this: “It was a hindrance, there is a need for unity to be efficient, and we realized over time that people were not doing these 3 km between Décines and Meyzieu” . Following an article from The Team on the subject, Pierre Sage confirmed on Monday that “we have been working for more than a year on the fact that the youth teams are getting closer to the GOLTC, or even integrating it”.
“The fans feel that they can hang on to OL”
For Jean-François Vulliez, “the key factor is above all the recent instability within the academy”. “I was director for six years, and here OL have just had three managers in 18 months [Pierre Sage, le duo Fabien Caballero-Johan Louvel et désormais Johann Louvel-Mathieu Seckinger]he continues. There have also been three and four different coaches in national U17 and U19 since the summer of 2023.”
Stability is undeniably lacking at Meyzieu, where only Cyrille Dolce (U15) and Amaury Barlet (U17) have been in office for more than ten years, while multiple historic trainers have been pushed out during this period. Among them, Gilles Rousset left the club in 2019, a few months after being “attacked and threatened with death” by Christian Bassila, then coach of the reserve team in N2.
« OL have suffered a deterioration in their standards. It's inconceivable to see the reserve in N3 when at one time, we finished 4th in N2 by almost only fielding U19s. Many educators who arrived are not up to the level, it has become an ordinary training center and even a field of ruins. Where are the players today? I'm looking for him, the next young person who could one day be sold for €30 million. »
A trainer from another club in the region validates Lyon's profound downgrading among young players: “I knew an OL who gave us ten just with first year players. We were sure to pick up, whatever the category. Today, they have missed some top Lyon educators and the amateur clubs feel that they can hook them. But in terms of attractiveness, OL remains OL and always manages to attract the best young people in the region.”
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“Lyon’s DNA has always been instinctive football”
However, the Lyon academy, although crowned with a title in the Gambardella Cup in 2022 with Eric Hély, is slow to regain its former efficiency. “The DNA of Lyon football has always been an alloy of technique, speed and strength, a football of instinct and spontaneity very linked to its neighborhoods, a street football,” notes Kelly Youga, a former professional defender trained in OL and now at the head of a players academy in Lyon. The club is still in the midst of a culture shock with this difficult transition between its traditional school and the more modern one, which relies on different methodologies and data sensors. »
Today assistant coach at AC Horsens (Danish D2), Jean-François Vulliez is not alarmist about the current situation: “We need to gain perspective from the results, which are not reliable elements for assess the level of a training center. OL has very young players in most categories and certain generations are experiencing late maturity. The priority remains to train professional players and support them.”
Our file on OL
In these economically uncertain times with John Textor at the head of the project, a former club trainer concludes: “OL have always relied on their training center, from the Giuly-Bardon era to Lacazette-Fekir -Tolisso. Thanks to all these young people thrown into the deep end, you were never in danger among the pros. If you abandon the training center, it’s the end…”. Contacted by 20 MinutesOL did not wish to comment on the latest news from its academy.
