Olympique Lyonnais mourns Fleury Di Nallo, its top scorer in history (222 goals) and probably its greatest legend. He died Wednesday at the age of 83. If he was never French champion with Les Gones (you will have to wait for Jean-Michel Aulas and 2002), Di Nallo made the history of OL and his city. The capital of Gaul brought many workers from Italy in the early 19th century, including the Di Nallo family. Little Fleury, born in Lyon in 1943, grew up in a public housing project opposite the Stade de Gerland, where he had the opportunity to support Les Gones.
A little prodigy from his neighborhood club, Fleury Di Nallo was hired by OL in exchange for a suitcase full of tickets given to parents, as told on the club’s website. He started at the age of 17, in 1960, in a club which had no star player. Two first seasons of D1 allowed him to discover the French team, being associated with the 1958 Ballon d’Or Raymond Kopa, for a double. “The Little Prince of Gerland” even scored during a gala match against Brazil’s Pelé, 22, in 1963 in Colombes.
Number 9 of the Blues then seriously injured
But Fleury Di Nallo will never become the Blues’ official scorer. At the age of 25, he nevertheless established himself at the head of a moribund selection and scored two goals against Yugoslavia in qualifying for Euro 1972. His international career is anecdotal. “Because he plays for OL, far from Paris, because he is shy, because he avoids journalists, because he doesn’t always get along with the coaches, because he was injured. In September 1968, he was 25 years old, his leg was broken by a tackle from a Red Star defender.explains the OL website in a moving portrait.
After a 10-month convalescence, Di Nallo returns to shake the nets. He has lost his flashiness but is becoming a goal chaser, with several seasons at 20 pawns. He honored his 10th and last tricolor cape in April 1971, under Georges Boulogne, at the age of 28. Other center forwards in the championship will be preferred (Hervé Revelli then Bernard Lacombe). Fleury Di Nallo won a third Coupe de France with OL, in 1973, and left his city two years later for Red Star, at the age of 32, before finishing in D4, in Montpellier.
