OL: Young players kicked out of the Lyon locker room? – Olympique Lyonnais

With John Textor at the helm, the face of the Lyon squad has changed considerably. OL uses less members of its training center, in favor of more experienced managers. That it has become difficult for a young person to make his mark at OL…

OL is one of the French clubs where starting your professional career is the most common. With its very efficient training center, the Rhone club constantly feeds its first team. This is currently the case with Rayan Cherki and Maxence Caqueret, who have been in Ligue 1 for several seasons already. The large number of matches they played almost makes you forget their young age: 24 years for Caqueret, 21 years for Cherki. A great achievement for both men, especially in the John Textor version of OL. Since taking power, the American has preferred to rely on experience for his workforce.

U20s snubbed at OL

In recent months, OL have recruited more experienced players such as Nemanja Matic, Said Benrahma, Moussa Niakhaté and Jordan Veretout while Jake O’Brien, Castello Lukeba, Malo Gusto and Bradley Barcola have gone the opposite way. Consequently, it is not abnormal to see Lyon’s average age increase significantly despite the recruitment of Fofana (19 years old), Nuamah (20 years old) and Orban (22 years old) recently. A trend is emerging at OL: you have to wait longer before getting your chance on the field.

The statistics published by Ligue 1 are clear: very young players, aged under 20, do not have a huge amount of playing time with Pierre Sage. There are only 3 currently playing with the Rhone club: Malick Fofana, Sael Kumbedi and Mahamadou Diawara, all aged 19. Between them, they have only played 364 minutes this season in Ligue 1. OL are only 12th in this ranking in Ligue 1. In comparison, leader Reims has given 1,161 minutes to their ” teenagers » as designated by the Ligue 1 website. The second Monaco offered 1016 minutes to its players under 20 years old. The first place of ASM in Ligue 1 and the fourth of Rémois prove that the reluctance of the Lyonnais is not necessarily justified.