That’s it, it’s over… 36 years after taking the reins, Jean-Michel Aulas will leave Olympique Lyonnais. It’s not (yet) official, but the daily L’Équipe ensures that everything is set, that the decision has been made. In fact, it should even be announced “in the next few hours”, while the Gones remain on a crazy success against Montpellier (5-4), Sunday, during the 34th day of L1. Perhaps the last game of “JMA” at the head of “his” OL, this club which he took over in June 1987. A club in the red at the bank and which was vegetating in Ligue 2. The 74-year-old leader made it a stronghold.
Under his presidency, Les Gones notably won seven titles of champions of France (2002-08). The club now owns its own stadium, the Groupama Stadium, and represents worldwide deference in terms of training and among women. Jean-Michel Aulas, a visionary. Perhaps the greatest president of French football. And this even if some Lyon supporters felt that his decisions had not been so inspired in recent years… In any case, this is the feeling of John Textor, who took charge of OL Groupe in 2022. And this by promising that ‘Aulas would remain master on board “for at least three years”.
In the end, the differences of opinion between the two men were too great. “The Americans had the primary and priority objective of in-depth restructuring of the sports sector, in particular by setting up a recruitment cell worthy of the name, which “JMA” did not wish to support”, summarize our colleagues. Mr. Aulas, 74, will therefore be pushed out, just to allow American leaders to put their paw. Still according to L’Équipe, he will receive € 10 million in severance pay.
A farewell gift with a bitter taste, one imagines, for Jean-Michel Aulas, a successful entrepreneur who will go down in the history of Olympique Lyonnais and French football. A football giant. We have probably not finished hearing about him since his name is mentioned to lead the women’s league. Taulier.
