OL Lyonnes

History

The club was formed as the women's section of FC Lyon in 1970. In 2004, the women's club became the women's section of Olympique Lyonnais. Since joining Lyon, the women's section has won the Division 1 Féminine fourteen times and the Coupe de France nine times. Lyon reached the semi-finals of the 2007–08 edition of the UEFA Women's Cup and, during the 2009–10 season, reached the final of the inaugural edition of the UEFA Women's Champions League, losing to German club Turbine Potsdam 7–6 on penalties. In the following season, Lyon finally captured the UEFA Women's Champions League, defeating its nemesis Turbine Potsdam 2–0 in the 2011 final. It successfully defended its title in 2012, defeating FFC Frankfurt in the final.

From 2016 to 2020, the club won five consecutive Champions League titles, equaling the male record held by Real Madrid. Four players: Sarah Bouhaddi, Amel Majri ,Wendie Renard, and Eugénie Le Sommer have all won eight Champions League trophies. They are listed by the Guinness World Records as the "Most Women’s Champions League wins by a player".

Lyon's main rivalry is with Paris Saint-Germain, with matches between the two teams sometimes referred as the "Classique féminin". Paris is OL's main contender for national titles, as they finished in second place of D1 Féminine seven times. Lyon had never lost the D1 title to PSG until 2021 when PSG finished ahead of Lyon, and won five Coupe de France finals against Paris. In 2017 both teams reached the Champions League final, with Lyon beating Paris after a penalty shoot-out and winning its fourth title in the competition.

Lyon hosts its matches at the Stade Gérard Houllier, a stadium of capacity 1,524 located in the Groupama OL Training Center and situated not far from the larger Parc Olympique Lyonnais (sometime called Groupama Stadium) where the male teams play. The women's team does host its "big" matches such as UEFA Women's Champions League at the 59,000-seat stadium. Often identified as the "tallest [woman] footballer", Wendie Renard had been a long-term captain (and also of the France women's national football team) of the team, having one of the most prolific careers, including most titles won (with Le Sommer), most final appearance and top all-time appearances in the Campions League. According to the UEFA women's coefficient, Lyon was the highest-ranked club in UEFA in 2014, and second in 2025, behind FC Barcelona Femení.

As Michele Kang took over the club in 2024, her immediate action was to have higher-capacity home ground. Groupama OL Training Center has only 1,200 seats. In the 2024-25 season, home matches were played at different cities like Bourg-en-Bresse, Grenoble, and Bourgoin-Jallieu. She negotiated with the Lyon OU Rugby to share their home stadium, the Matmut Stadium de Gerland, having a seating capacity of 25,000. However, she was able to convince the OL Groupe to allow the use of Parc Olympique Lyonnais. On 19 May 2025, Kang announced that Parc Olympique Lyonnais will be their home ground from the following season, and that she had taken over the men's training centre, which she will transform into one that is "better than most men's teams's training centres."

On 1 June 2025, the club announced the departure of head coach Joe Montemurro, after one year of his contract. He leaves with a league title under his belt, to take up an opportunity with the Australian women's national team. The following day, 2 June 2025, OL Lyonnes announced the appointment of Jonatan Giráldez as their new Head Coach, on a contract until June 2028

Name

The club's previous names (FC Lyon and Olympique Lyonnais Féminin) were direct references to the city of Lyon. On 19 May 2025, Kang announced the new name as "OL Lyonnes"; OL referring to the parent club and lyonnes as a portmanteau of the city and lionnes, a French word for "lionnesses". She explained that y was used in place of i to retain reference to the city, and the parent club, but entirely dropping féminin to designate the club as a separate management from that of the men's, as she said, "We wanted to emphasize that lionesses are different than lions."

Along with unveiling the new name, a new logo was introduced which shows the head part of a roaring red lioness with blue and gold accents, and a crest above it. To make a distinction from the counterpart men's club that has a lion as an emblem, Kang explained that she was inspired by her safari to Africa where she learnt that it was the lionesses who do most of the work such as hunting and caring for the pride, saying: "I'm talking in real life, male lions sleep 22 hours out of 24 hours. So if you think about the lioness, who's really roaring; the fears, competitiveness, protecting and surviving, all those things to us, that was the spirit of the lioness." The golden crest signifies the club's success in the highest-level competitions. The club will also adopt a new slogan: Nouvelle Histoire, Même Légende ("New Story, Same Legend").

Ownership and finances

Main article: OL Groupe, John Textor

Lyon Féminin is part of OL Groupe, whose majority shareholder since December 2022 is Eagle Football Group, which is controlled by American businessman John Textor. Club president Jean-Michel Aulas was also OL Groupe's previous and founding owner, and remains a minority owner of OL Groupe and board director of Eagle Football Group.

, L'Équipe reported that Lyon Féminin operated at a €12 million annual deficit.

On 16 May 2023, OL Groupe and Michele Kang announced the formation of a separate entity that would be composed of Kang's Washington Spirit of the NWSL, and Olympique Lyon Féminin. OL Groupe would sell its NWSL club, OL Reign, to resolve conflicts of interest. OL Groupe would retain a 48% stake in the resulting new entity, and Kang would become the club's majority owner and CEO, pending regulatory approval. Kang's proposed deal for the women's side reportedly valued it at $54.4 million. Kang attended Lyon's victory in the Coupe de France féminine finals on 13 May 2023 and raised the trophy with the team.

In February 2024, Kang and Vincent Ponsot, the CEO of Lyon Féminin, jointly announced the completion of the ownership deal, with Kang becoming the majority owner at 52.9%. In July 2024, Kang announced the launch of Kynisca Sports International, Ltd., a London-based company that would serve as the umbrella group for her multi-team sports ownership, including Lyon Féminin, Washington Spirit and London City Lionesses. The company was named after Cynisca of Sparta, the first woman to win an event in the ancient Olympic Games. Kang simultaneously announced the launch of $50 million in seed and matching funding for the Kynisca Innovation Hub, a non-profit research initiative specialized in female sports training.

Players

Current squad

Out on loan

Notable former players

French

• Eugénie Le Sommer
• Camille Abily
• Mylène Chauvot
• Élodie Thomis
• Corine Petit
• Sonia Bompastor
• Louisa Necib
• Laura Georges
• Élise Bussaglia
• Hoda Lattaf
• Sabrina Viguier
• Sandrine Brétigny
• Sandrine Dusang
• Delphine Blanc
• Laëtitia Tonazzi
• Jessica Houara
• Claire Lavogez
• Pauline Peyraud-Magnin
• Kenza Dali
• Kheira Hamraoui
• Ève Périsset
• Claire Morel
• Séverine Creuzet-Laplantes
• Sarah Bouhaddi
• Amandine Henry
• Griedge Mbock Bathy
• Delphine Cascarino
• Melvine Malard
• Perle Morroni

Australian

• Ellie Carpenter Brazilian
• Kátia
• Rosana
• Simone Jatobá Canadian
• Kadeisha Buchanan Chinese
• Wang Fei Costa Rican
• Shirley Cruz Danish
• Dorte Dalum Jensen
• Line Røddik Hansen Dutch
• Daniëlle van de Donk
• Shanice van de Sanden English
• Lucy Bronze
• Izzy Christiansen
• Alex Greenwood
• Nikita Parris German
• Josephine Henning
• Pauline Bremer
• Carolin Simon Icelandic
• Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir Japanese
• Saki Kumagai
• Shinobu Ohno
• Ami Otaki New-Zealander
• Erin Nayler Nigerian
• Cynthia Uwak Norwegian
• Christine Colombo Nilsen
• Isabell Herlovsen
• Bente Nordby
• Ingvild Stensland
• Andrea Norheim Portuguese
• Jéssica Silva Swedish
• Amelie Rybäck
• Lotta Schelin
• Caroline Seger Swiss
• Lara Dickenmann American
• Lorrie Fair
• Megan Rapinoe
• Hope Solo
• Aly Wagner
• Christie Welsh
• Alex Morgan
• Morgan Brian Welsh
• Jess Fishlock

Current staff

All results (away, home and aggregate) list Lyon's goal tally first.

f First leg.

List of seasons

Main article: List of Olympique Lyonnais Féminin seasons

Top scorers in bold were also the top scorers in the Division 1 Féminine that season.

References

References

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