Ready to sell the buildings of the Olympique Lyonnais training center to his friend Michelle Kang, John Textor is starting to seriously worry at all levels.
Under pressure from the DNCG, which imposed a recruitment ban for the winter transfer window and a precautionary demotion to Ligue 2 at the end of the season, John Textor bent over backwards to replenish OL's coffers. Thanks to the winter transfer window, Lyon has already recovered more than 30 ME with the sales of Caqueret, Orban and Jeffinho. The American owner is also in the process of selling his shares in the Crystal Palace club. And that's not all because Textor could earn Eagle another 20 ME with the sale of another part of the Rhone club. After having already sold the women's OL and the LDLC Arena, Textor will soon sell the lease and premises of the Academy to her friend from Florida Michelle Kang. Already the owner of OL women, the American businesswoman would consider building a stadium around the Meyzieu complex. But then, what will become of the OL training center, which has been based a few dozen kilometers from Groupama Stadium since 2016?
“It’s a huge stupidity”
According to L'Equipe, Textor would like to build new buildings around Groupama Stadium in order to bring together all the activity of OL men in Décines. A project which remains uncertain, but which Lyon supporters sincerely hope for. “If it’s to put the center back in the same place as the pros (a possibility put forward in the article): very good, it’s about time. If it’s to throw training overboard to save money in the short term: help”explains Serious Charly on X. Same observation for Jean-Baptiste Duluc: “Do we agree that the goal is to get 20M? Because apart from that, for the moment, it's a huge stupidity… Even if he wants to bring young people and professionals together (which I doubt given his lack of footballing ideology from the start), there is something comical to see Eagle sell the OL training center (which made it great) after having built centers of excellence in Brazil with OL money”. If Textor's project with the OL training center therefore still remains quite vague, everyone is in any case surprised by this information.
-Starting with the mayor of Meyzieu, who reacted to this information which is however not official at all. But the elected Republican could not help but comment on it, he who could still be concerned in the event of a major change in town planning. « Thanks for the info John Textor, maybe we should have talked about this before… », said Christophe Quiniou, who has certainly just learned of this possibility through the press.
