Olympique Lyonnais (popularly known as OL, or simply Lyon) is a French football club based in Lyon. They play in Ligue 1 and are the reigning champions of France. They have won the Ligue 1 title seven years straight, a record that no other club in France has matched. Lyon have won seven Trophées des Champions, four Coupe de France, three Ligue 2 Championships as well as seven participations in the UEFA Champions League, despite not taking part in a final, or a semi-final. Olympique Lyonnais play their home matches at the 41,044 seater Stade de Gerland, Lyon. OL were also a member of the G14 group of leading European football clubs. Lyon was formed as Lyon Olympique Universitaire in 1899, according to many supporters and sport historians but was nationally established as a club on 3 August 1950. The club also has a women's football team with several international players in it.
Gérard Houllier, former Liverpool manager who had guided the side to a Cup Treble success in 2001, was appointed as the current Lyon boss in 2005, after the resignation of Le Guen. He had inherited a worthy championship side, with the likes of Juninho, Sylvain Wiltord, Sidney Govou, Florent Malouda and Grégory Coupet. He placed Juninho as captain and brought Portuguese international Tiago to the club from Chelsea, in a part-exchange deal for Michael Essien.
In his first full season, he had guided the side to a fifth consecutive league title but failed to make an impact in the Champions League, after crashing out to AC Milan at the San Siro. It was their third consecutive Quarter-final appearance in the Champions League. Lyon won the title after Lille's win against Bordeaux.
Houllier was recently successful in signing French U21 international, Jérémy Toulalan from Nantes as well as Swedish play-maker, Kim Källström from Rennes. Gérard however, lost the services of Mali's Mahamadou Diarra who had agreed a five-year contract with Real Madrid, worth up to €25 million. In order to replace Mahamadou Diarra, Gérard signed another French international Alou Diarra from RC Lens.
