The 2000 decade in Ligue 1 corresponds to the hegemony of Olympique Lyonnais. Between 2002 and 2008, the Rhone club won a septuplet in the championship.
Under the presidency of Jean-Michel Aulas and with coaches like Paul Le Guen then Gérard Houllier, OL dominated French football head and shoulders during this era. With players such as Juninho, Coupet, Cris, Govou, Malouda, Essien, Diarra and Benzema, Les Gones lived their golden age.
However, Geoffroy Garétier today puts this domination into perspective. “I’m going to get angry with a lot of people in Lyon, but… So what? At the time, there was no competition. PSG was at the bottom of the hole, OM in its demons and Monaco had its ups and downs”recontextualized the sports journalist during the podcast Aliotalk.
A glass ceiling in the Champions League for this OL which was racing in L1
The employee of Canal+ was never really impressed by this prosperous period for OL. “This record of seven consecutive titles means nothing to me for several reasons, he continues. They broke no points record and failed to finish a championship undefeated. And above all, in those years, they never made it past the quarter-finals of the Champions League. »
Indeed, Lyon had reached this stage of the competition during the 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 financial years. Paradoxically, it was during the 2009-2010 season that the club founded in 1950 reached the last four of the C1, when its golden age was over.
