In 2000-01, Olympique Lyonnaise finished second in the French Ligue 1 with 17 wins, 4 losses, and 13 draws.
Buoyed by their second place finish, a hungry OL side in 2001-02 beat out RC Rens 66-64 in the points race for the title. Despite the championship, Jacques Santini stepped down as manager because many in the organization felt he was the right man for the job.
Rennes' Paul Le Guen took over and Lyon won the next three Ligue 1 titles.
In 2003, they barley beat out Monaco 68-67 points. In 2004 Paris St. Germain 69-66, In 2005 they had a little more comfortable 8-point winning margin over Lille OSC. Flexing their muscles, they had a 15-point difference over Bordeaux as they captured their fifth straight Ligue 1 championship in 2006 under former Liverpool manager Gerard Houillier. They annexed their sixth championship as they further widened the gap with a 17-point point differential over second running Marseille 81-64, Houillier's last before stepping aside.
Then last year, OL survived a close chase by Bordeaux as they copped their seventh crown by ammassing 79 points to the challenger's 75 under manager Alain Perrin.
Under Claude Puel, their fifth manager in eight seasons, the seven-time champs are only a point up on Marseille 56-55 with 16-5-8 in 29 matches. Les Gones (The Kids) only regained the top pole position over OM with a 2-0 win over Sochaux over the past weekend placing more pressure on the squad and the new gaffer.
Lyon has five national players in the squad with forwards Karim Benzema, Sidney Gouvou, midfielder Jeremy Toulalan, defender Jean-Alain Boumsong, and goal keeper Hugo Loris but the team has had all sorts of problems on and off the pitch. Word that Brazilian team captain Juninho will return to his original club, Vasco De Gama in the off season has not helped any.
Galactic Ambitions
Not content with signing up O Fenomeno, Ronaldo, ambitious Brazilian club Corinthians have set their sites on luring French legend Zinedine Zidane out of retirement to pair him up with his former Real Madrid team-mate in Sao Paolo.
Zizou, now 36-years-old, and Ronaldo, 32, were a key part of the galactico era at the Bernabeu and Corinthians director Mario Gobbi admitted that he wants to bring a slice of that glamour to the Paulista. "Zidane is an impossible dream... but so was Ronaldo," Gobbi told Gazeta Esportiva. "I believe that it will be difficult to make two impossible dreams come true in the same year."
Corinthians fought-off several interested parties from Europe, as well as fierce rivals Flamengo, to sign Ronaldo and it has been reported that the Brazilian club are currently negotiating a sponsorship deal with French hypermarket chain, Carrefour, in the hope of facilitating a deal for Zidane.
Buoyed by their second place finish, a hungry OL side in 2001-02 beat out RC Rens 66-64 in the points race for the title. Despite the championship, Jacques Santini stepped down as manager because many in the organization felt he was the right man for the job.
Rennes' Paul Le Guen took over and Lyon won the next three Ligue 1 titles.
In 2003, they barley beat out Monaco 68-67 points. In 2004 Paris St. Germain 69-66, In 2005 they had a little more comfortable 8-point winning margin over Lille OSC. Flexing their muscles, they had a 15-point difference over Bordeaux as they captured their fifth straight Ligue 1 championship in 2006 under former Liverpool manager Gerard Houillier. They annexed their sixth championship as they further widened the gap with a 17-point point differential over second running Marseille 81-64, Houillier's last before stepping aside.
Then last year, OL survived a close chase by Bordeaux as they copped their seventh crown by ammassing 79 points to the challenger's 75 under manager Alain Perrin.
Under Claude Puel, their fifth manager in eight seasons, the seven-time champs are only a point up on Marseille 56-55 with 16-5-8 in 29 matches. Les Gones (The Kids) only regained the top pole position over OM with a 2-0 win over Sochaux over the past weekend placing more pressure on the squad and the new gaffer.
Lyon has five national players in the squad with forwards Karim Benzema, Sidney Gouvou, midfielder Jeremy Toulalan, defender Jean-Alain Boumsong, and goal keeper Hugo Loris but the team has had all sorts of problems on and off the pitch. Word that Brazilian team captain Juninho will return to his original club, Vasco De Gama in the off season has not helped any.
Galactic Ambitions
Not content with signing up O Fenomeno, Ronaldo, ambitious Brazilian club Corinthians have set their sites on luring French legend Zinedine Zidane out of retirement to pair him up with his former Real Madrid team-mate in Sao Paolo.
Zizou, now 36-years-old, and Ronaldo, 32, were a key part of the galactico era at the Bernabeu and Corinthians director Mario Gobbi admitted that he wants to bring a slice of that glamour to the Paulista. "Zidane is an impossible dream... but so was Ronaldo," Gobbi told Gazeta Esportiva. "I believe that it will be difficult to make two impossible dreams come true in the same year."
Corinthians fought-off several interested parties from Europe, as well as fierce rivals Flamengo, to sign Ronaldo and it has been reported that the Brazilian club are currently negotiating a sponsorship deal with French hypermarket chain, Carrefour, in the hope of facilitating a deal for Zidane.
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