Olympique Lyonnais Reserves and Academy

Olympique Lyonnais Reserves and Academy
The Olympique Lyonnais Reserves & Academy are the reserve team and academy of French club Olympique Lyonnais. The reserves squad play in the Championnat National 3, the fifth division of French football and the second highest division the team is allowed to participate in. Lyon have won the reserves title of the Championnat de France Amateur six times. They have won in 1998, 2001, 2003, 2006, and 2009, and 2010.
Overview
The U-19 squad participates in their weekly league, the Championnat National U19, which is a league comprising four groups of fourteen clubs who play each other twice during the regular season. This session is dubbed Phase 1. Following the regular season, the four group winners are randomly selected to face each other in semi-final matches (dubbed Phase 2) to decide who will play each other in the Under-18 Championnat National championship match, usually held in Mayenne. There is also a third-place match, which is usually held just before the championship match. The Under-18 squad also regularly participates in the Coupe Gambardella. They have won the title on 4 occasions. They won the cup in 1971, 1994, 1997 and 2022.
The U-17 side participates in a league, the Championnat National U17, a youth league comprising six groups of twelve clubs who play each other twice during the regular season, dubbed Phase 1. Following the regular season, the six group winners and the two best second place clubs are randomly inserting into two groups of four, where they play each other at neutral venues once over a span of four days. This portion is dubbed Phase 2. The two winners of each group will then face each other in the championship match to determine the champion of the Under-17 Championnat National. The Under-17 squad also participates in regional cup competitions.
The current National 3 manager is Gueida Fofana, who played for Olympique Lyonnais before but had his career cut-short due to injuries. He has been the manager of Lyon's reserves team since 2019. The manager of the Olympique Lyonnais U-19s and U-17s are former Lyon defender Jérémie Bréchet, and Mohamed Chacha.
Philosophy
According to Faouzi Djedou-Benabid, the scout for Niort and the co-author of Pourquoi le foot français va dans le mur (Why French football goes into wall) (2015), published by Hugo Sport, the training provided in Olympique Lyonnais academy favors the technical learning of football over match results, like FC Barcelona: thus, "Lyon educators do not hesitate to have defenders play in midfield so that 'they can learn to use their feet better". In addition, the formation does not favor any pattern of play, allowing the players to adapt easily to all positions during the game.
as a result of this philosophy, since the 2010s, Lyon youth academy gained reputation all around Europe as being one of the top football academies in the continent, producing several players playing in European top tier competitions. Between 2012 and 2019, Lyon appears successively eight times in top 4 of the International Centre for Sports Studies list of the best football academies in Europe. Lyon was also rated by the French Football Federation as the best football academy in France for six seasons in a row, between 2013 and 2019.
In February 2014, L'Équipe writes that Olympique Lyonnais ranks second in terms of the number of players trained at the club and playing in the "five major European championships" (Germany, England, Spain, France and Italy) tied with Real Madrid, and the first being FC Barcelona. In 2015, France Football rated Lyon youth academy as one of the best in Europe, as it is used to feed the first team, and also having a pool of players with value on the transfer market, without this being in the heart of the club's policy. Indeed, the competition level in Lyon's youth team is very difficult for young players, they will regularly, voluntarily or not, emancipate themselves in other very young clubs. Just as regularly, a certain number of them manage to have a good national or international career such as Ludovic Giuly, Karim Benzema, Alexandre Lacazette, Samuel Umtiti, or Nabil Fekir.
Honours
Championnat de France Amateurs: 7
Champions: 1998, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011
Championnat National U17: 4
Champions: 1994, 2000, 2004, 2014
Championnat National U19: 3
Champions: 1993, 2000, 2005
Coupe Gambardella: 4
Champions: 1971, 1994, 1997, 2022
Finalists: 1970, 1992, 2005, 2006, 2015
Coupe Nationale U16 (with Rhône-Alpes): 2
Champions: 1960, 1996
French Division 3: 1
Champions: 1993
Montaigu Tournament: 2
Champions: 2000, 2004
Current squad
Reserve squad (Olympique Lyonnais II)
As of 15 October 2023
U19 squad
U17 squad
Staff
As of 1 July 2023
Notable alumni
Many players from Lyon's youth system have managed to reach the professional level in football, whether at Lyon or at other clubs. As of October 2023, 34 players formed in the Lyon academy had capped for the France national football team. Below is a non-exhaustive list of notable players who trained in the youth or reserve teams of Olympique Lyonnais:
France
Loïc Abenzoar
Ghislain Anselmini
Marcel Aubour
Farès Bahlouli
Mohamed Bahlouli
Florent Balmont
Bradley Barcola
Melvin Bard
Cédric Bardon
Xavier Barrau
Christian Bassila
Karim Belhocine
Olivier Bellisi
Nicolas Belvito
Hatem Ben Arfa
Mourad Benhamida
Farid Benstiti
Karim Benzema
Bryan Bergougnoux
Olivier Bernard
Jérémy Berthod
Grégory Bettiol
Romain Beynié
Maxime Blanc
Gilbert Bonvin
Pierre Bouby
Jérémie Bréchet
Anthony Briançon
Maxence Caqueret
Alexis Carra
Alain Caveglia
Johann Charpenet
Mickael Charvet
Yves Chauveau
Xavier Chavalerin
Rayan Cherki
Serge Chiesa
François Clerc
Jérémy Clément
Timothé Cognat
Renaud Cohade
Mickaël Colloredo
Néstor Combin
Gilles Constantinian
Yoann Court
Laurent Courtois
Florent Da Silva
Stéphane Darbion
Maxime D'Arpino
Romain Dedola
Romain Del Castillo
Sylvain Deplace
Jean-Christophe Devaux
Fleury Di Nallo
Jean Djorkaeff
Raymond Domenech
Jean Dumas
Jean-Philippe Durand
Franck Durix
Alan Dzabana
Mohamed El Arouch
Sébastien Faure
Julien Faussurier
Nabil Fekir
Yassin Fekir
Jordan Ferri
Fabrice Fiorèse
Maxence Flachez
Sébastien Flochon
Laurent Fournier
Pascal Fugier
Rémi Garde
Jordy Gaspar
Bruno Génésio
Alexis Genet
Guy Genet
Gaël Genevier
Willem Geubbels
Ludovic Giuly
Yohan Gomez
Maxime Gonalons
Mathieu Gorgelin
Hérold Goulon
Sidney Govou
Fabrice Grange
Clément Grenier
Sébastien Grimaldi
Malo Gusto
Joan Hartock
Alexandre Hauw
David Hellebuyck
Kévin Jacmot
Warren Jacmot
Franck Jurietti
Pierre Kalulu
Timothée Kolodziejczak
Billy Koumetio
Zakarie Labidi
Alexandre Lacazette
Bernard Lacombe
Guillaume Lacour
Gérard Lanthier
Florent Laville
William Le Pogam
Sekou Lega
David Linarès
Castello Lukeba
Steed Malbranque
Jérémy Manzorro
Myziane Maolida
Alexis Martial
Anthony Martial
Théo Ndicka Matam
Boris Mathis
Florian Maurice
Jonathan Mendes
Julian Michel
Anthony Mounier
Louis Nganioni
Bruno Ngotty
Camille Ninel
Robert Nouzaret
Harry Novillo
Sandy Paillot
Julian Palmieri
Mour Paye
Gaëtan Perrin
Jacques Philip
Jérémy Pied
Lenny Pintor
Alassane Pléa
Damien Plessis
Grégoire Puel
Paulin Puel
Nicolas Puydebois
Daniel Ravier
Enzo Reale
Loïc Rémy
Remy Riou
Claude-Arnaud Rivenet
Thomas Robinet
Mathieu Salamand
Junior Sambia
Mamadou Sarr
Romain Sartre
Ernest Schultz
Nicolas Seguin
Yoan Severin
Stéphane Solomenko
Yaya Soumaré
Julien Stephan
Éric Taborda
Kevin Tapoko
Hermann Tebily
Titouan Thomas
Corentin Tolisso
Johann Truchet
Samuel Umtiti
Cédric Uras
Pierrick Valdivia
Julien Viale
Hugo Vogel
Daniel Xuereb
Yoan Zouma
Africa
Houssem Aouar
Ishak Belfodil
Yassine Benzia
Abdelkader Ghezzal
Rachid Ghezzal
Amine Gouiri
Yacine Hima
Yannis Lagha
Khaled Lemmouchia
Karim Maroc
Saïd Mehamha
Yannis Tafer
Mehdi Zeffane
Nassim Zitouni
Nassim Innocenti
Vincent Ye
Yann Mabella
Sinaly Diomandé
Lossémy Karaboué
Éric Tié Bi
Raphaël Anaba
Romarin Billong
Joseph-Désiré Job
Olivier Kemen
Philippe N'Dioro
Clinton N'Jie
Moussa Djoumoi
Faiz Mattoir
Cyriaque Mayounga
Dylan Mboumbouni
Amos Youga
Kelly Youga
Aldo Kalulu
Gédéon Kalulu
Yann Kitala
Samuel Moutoussamy
Elisha Owusu
Mouctar Diakhaby
Sekou Yansané
Mohamed Yattara
Fabien Boyer
Thomas Fontaine
Jamal Alioui
Fahd Moufi
Kays Ruiz-Atil
Issiar Dramé
Frédéric Kanouté
Habib Keïta
Sidy Koné
Bryan Ngwabije
Lamine Gassama
Abdoulaye Ndiaye
Bouna Sarr
Mouhamadou-Naby Sarr
Demba Touré
Sylvain Idangar
Ludovic Assemoassa
Malcolm Barcola
Chaïm El Djebali
Hamza Rafia
Rest of World
Hamdan Al Kamali
Théo Defourny
Héritier Deyonge
Camilo
Zachary Brault-Guillard
Jérémy Frick
Kilian Pagliuca
Anthony Racioppi
Jian Tao
Yu Junwei
Zhang Xiuwei
Reo Griffiths
Aleksandre Guruli
Georges Mikautadze
Noam Bonnet
Francesco Migliore
Kim Shin
Philippe Paoli
Christopher Martins Pereira
Ulrik Yttergård Jenssen
Tord Salte
Anthony Lopes
Cenk Özkaçar
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Players in bold are those who capped for their National team.
References
Reserves and Academy
Football academies in France
French reserve football teams
UEFA Youth League teams