Wonderkid Factories: Olympique Lyonnais

We’ve already looked at one French team so far in our wonderkid factories series and as undeniably talented as Le Havre’s ex academy products were they can’t compete with the sheer scale of quality this next team has produced.

Olympique Lyonnais have reeled off star after star in recent years and it would seem that very few clubs in Europe can rival their academy’s productivity.

The emergence of Lyon’s academy as a youth production force began in 1987 when Jean Michel-Aulas, a local businessman, became the club’s president. OL were languishing in the second tier of French football and Aulas’ solution was to bring in two former players to help run the club. Raymond Domenech was appointed as head coach and Bernard Lacombe as sporting director.

Domenech noticed some of the young talent that was already at the club including Remi Garde, and guided the club back to the top flight with promotion in 1989.

After that, the Centre Tola Vologe (so named after a murdered resistance leader) has been the flagship for youth excellence in France.

Gerard Bonneau is one of the men majorly responsible for that success as the club’s head of youth recruitment from 2003 to 2017. In his near 15 years at the club, Bonneau pushed a conveyor belt of talented players out of the academy and into the first team even during OL’s brilliant spell in the mid 2000’s.

In fact, at the end of 2020, the CIES Football Observatory looked at which youth academies in Europe had produced the most players currently playing in Europe’s top five leagues. Lyon were third on that list only behind Barcelona and Real Madrid, arguably the two biggest football clubs in the world.

Here are some of the players that have earnt OL that ranking: Alexandre Lacazette, Samuel Umtiti, Nabil Fekir, Karim Benzema, Houssem Aouar, Hatem Ben Arfa, Maxence Caqueret, Anthony Martial, Anthony Lopes, Maxime Gonalons, Loic Remy, Rachid Ghezzal, Frederic Kanoute, Sidney Govou and Corentin Tolisso.

Not bad eh?

Well as always we’ve taken a look at some of the players still at the club who could add their names to that illustrious list above.

Malo Gusto (Right Back)

Gusto may have not long turned 18 but he certainly isn’t letting that stop him. The right back has come through the ranks at OL and has broken into the first team this season making six appearances in Ligue 1 and a further two in the Europa League. He also has the distinction of being marked by Football Manager as a future wonderkid and has already featured for France’s U21’s.

Florent Da Silva (Central Midfielder)

Another to recently turn 18, Da Silva has also been at Lyon for a long time and although making the senior squad he is yet to make his full debut for the club yet. He’s been vital for Lyon’s B team this season and has also featured for France U18’s.

Rayan Cherki (Attacking Midfielder)

The youngest of the three players we’ve highlighted and undoubtedly the most talented, Cherki turned 18 in August but made his debut at just 16 years old  in 2019. He’s nearly made 40 appearances for the club already and has firmly established himself as a first team player for OL. He’s already capped for France’s U21’s and barring the brilliance of the French national squad he might have already received a call up from Didier Deschamps.