Freja Holm led RB Leipzig Women to their best-ever league finish despite selling their best three players amid a tricky financial situation. Her next challenge was to bridge the massive gap to the big two of Wolfsburg and FC Bayern. However, just after she’d snapped up nine players to begin that challenge, she received an unexpected offer she couldn’t turn down.
That was because an eight-time European champion invited Holm for an interview and swiftly offered her their vacant manager role. So Holm was off to her sixth club in six different countries. She departs Leipzig after just 28 games, of which she won 16 (57% win ratio), drew 4 and lost 8, scoring 67 and conceding 38.
Who are Olympique Lyonnais Lyonnes?
Olympique Lyonnais Féminin, also known as Olympique Lyonnais Lyonnes, OL Lyonnes, Lyon or OLL, is a professional women’s football club based in Lyon, in southwest France. The club was founded as the women’s section of FC Lyon in 1970, before becoming the female section of Olympique Lyonnais in 2004. It quickly became France’s most successful team, with 18 league titles as OLL, including 14 in a row between 2007 and 2020, and four more as FC Lyon. It also became the best club in the world in the 2010s, winning eight Women’s Champions League titles, including five in a row between 2016 and 2020.
OL Lyonnes was purchased by businesswoman Michele Kang in 2024, but she moved on from the club during this save as new chairperson Anthony Besancon took over in 2030. OL Lyonnes have added six more titles during this save, the most recent being in 2033. But it dropped to a lowly fifth in 2034 and 2035, when Paris FC and FC Fleury 91 won their first titles, improving to 4th last season as PSG won the league. However, the odd lack of sackings at big clubs in the women’s game continued, as the Lyon job only became available as Beverly Priestman resigned.
OL Lyonnes play at the absolutely massive 59,186-capacity Groupama Stadium in Décines-Charpieu, but Holm doubted they ever came close to half-filling it. That’s supported by excellent training and youth facilities, academy coaching and youth recruitment. However, as in keeping with this save, the finances still weren’t brilliant, with £1.5m in the bank, a transfer budget of £425k and £1k of a £43k wage budget going spare.
Holm walks into by far the strongest squad she’d ever worked with, led by 34-year-old midfielder Lou-Ann Joly, diminutive midfielder Anais Ebayilin (who definitely isn’t 4’11 IRL), goalkeeper Alberte Vingum Andersen, exciting Brazilian striker Maria Clara, veteran Dutch right back Lynn Wilms, centre back Noémie Fatier and Mexican striker Esmeralda Mason.
They also had some exciting young prospects led by striker Alice Aubert, whose attributes suggest she’s definitely a centre back, 16-year-old centre back Alice Bizet, German international centre back Benedicte Aké and attacking midfielder Mariame Gbéhi.
Holm brought in £450k for a few backup players. And she immediately returned to Leipzig to sign midfielder Angélica Durán for £500k. She also brought in a couple of temporary options to fill the oddly vacant left back berth.
Holm went ahead with her idea to convert Aubert into a centre back but, to do that, she decided the youngster needed a little security. She cooked up an odd-looking 3-5-2 approach that drops into a 4-5-1 out of possession. Mason will be the lead striker with Clara dropping deeper, with an exciting midfield trio of Ebayilin ahead of Duran and Joly. While Wilms plays inside as a centre back in possession then pushes across to full back out of possession. It might take a while for the players to adapt, but Holm wanted to give this approach a good go.
A Tricky Start in France
The bookies have OL Lyonnes as fifth favourites for Premiére Ligue with title odds of 33/1. Holders Fleury are 10/11 favourites to retain the title, followed by PSG (9/4), Nantes (10/1) and Havre AC (25/1).
Holm’s French adventure began with a tough trip to PSG and, despite playing quite well, they missed a host of chances and lost 3-0. It didn’t get much easier in her second match as they hosted Fleury. They bossed the early stages but missed easy chances, only for Holm’s former striker Neide Guedes to open the scoring. Lyon deservedly levelled with 20 minutes remaining as Mason volleyed home a corner and somehow didn’t add a second, so had to settle for a disappointing 1-1. And that was followed by a 3-2 League Cup defeat at Nice.
OLL kickstarted their season at Havre AC, with Joly scoring twice and Clara ending her 13-hour goal drought in a dominant 4-0 victory. Mason and Durán’s first goal for the club inspired a 3-1 win over Grenoble but back-to-back defeats to Paris FC and Lens left them lingering in an unacceptable 9th place.
That forced Holm to rip up the tactical approach, switching to more of a 4-3-3. The change had an immediate result as Mason’s early double led a 4-2 win at early leaders Marseille before Mason and Clara goals earned a 2-1 at Nantes. They then got revenge on Nice with Mason, Clara and Benyoub’s second-half goals earning a 3-1 victory that lifted them to 4th. And easily the best performance of Holm’s reign saw late Mason goals seal a crushing 4-1 win at Fleury.
French Cup Final
In addition to climbing up the league, OL Lyonnes breezed through the French Cup before Mason’s double inspired a 3-2 semi-final win over Montpellier. That teed up a Final against Grenoble, for which Holm lined up:
Olsen; Wilms, Aubert, Fatier, Jónsdóttir; Joly; Durán, Ebayilin; Windhahl, Mason, Clara
OL Lyonnes started brightly without having anything to show for it, and obviously conceded Grenoble’s first shot. Durán fired them level with a vicious 20-yard strike that arrowed into the top corner, more awful defending handed Grenoble another goal straight after halftime, but left back Kristín Jónsdóttir immediately levelled again with a backpost header. A massive save by Olsen spared her defenders’ blishes in injury time… and it went straight to penalties. At which point, the FM26 penalty shootout freeze occurred, so the game had to be instant resulted. But apparently, OLL won it, and I can’t really give you much more information than that. Honestly, this game has so many ongoing issues, it’s painful.
Big Sale Before OL Lyonnes Join 6-Way Title Battle
In January, Holm sold Andersen, who was a waste of space on £4,700 a week, to Angel City for her record fee of £1.1m. In her place, Holm returned to Leipzig again to sign Leah Sandnes Olsen for £250k on £2,200 less per week. She also snapped up exciting striker Vladana Saric for £25k from YB Frauen.
Olsen didn’t start particularly well, letting in three as OLL drew at home to PSG. But Durán and Clare earned a narrow 2-1 win at home to Havre to lift their side into 2nd place, just 2 points behind Marseille. They drew twice in March before entertaining Marseille and, despite two well-taken Mason goals, poor defending allowed the visitors to claim a point. That saw OLL drop to 5th in a thrilling title fight, with the top six separated by just 2 points with four games remaining.
Matchday 19 – Nice (8th, away): PSG claimed a huge 1-0 win at Marseille to go 3 points clear the day before OLL travelled to Nice. And they kept pace as another Mason brace led a 4-2 victory. Fleury lost 2-1 at Lens and ASSE drew 2-2 at Grenoble to take OLL 2nd, 2 points behind PSG with 3 points now splitting the top five.
Matchday 20 – Strasbourg (12th, home): OLL cruised to a 3-0 win over bottom side Strasbourg led by a Clara brace. PSG lost 3-1 at home to Nice, Marseille drew 0-0 at Fleury, ASSE beat Nantes 5-0 and Grenoble lost 3-0 at home to Paris FC. That sent OL Lyonnes top of Premiére Ligue for the first time all season, 1 point clear of PSG and ASSE and 3 clear of Marseilles going into the final two games.
Matchday 21 – Nantes (8th, away): OLL started poorly at Nantes, conceding a massively deflected shot after 7 minutes and fell further behind to a 30-yard freekick. And despite having 22 shots, they somehow had zero highlights and lost 2-0. PSG won 2-1 at Strasbourg and ASSE beat Paris FC 2-1 to send OLL down to 3rd, with the top three split by 2 points ahead of the final day.
Matchday 22 – ASSE (2nd, home): A league record attendance of 59,186 people turned up to see OL Lyonnes’ title decider at home to ASSE. Buoyed by that, the hosts got a flyer as they went straight from the kickoff and scored inside 38 seconds with Mason’s neat finish. But, of course, they swiftly conceded the opponents’ first shot too. OLL were back in front after half an hour as Ebayilin lofted the ball over the top for Mason to race through and calmly convert again. However, PSG were already 2-0 up at home to Nantes and went on to win 3-0, although OLL did secure an impressive 2-1 victory over their rivals.
That saw OL Lyonnes leapfrog ASSE on the final day to finish 2nd behind PSG. They finished on 42 points after 12 wins, 6 draws and 4 defeats, which was the fewest in the league, scoring 46 and conceding 30.
However, unbeknownst to Holm, the season was not done there, as the Premiére Ligue title was decided by playoffs. That meant a rematch at home to ASSE in the semis, which had exactly the same result as OLL went 2-0 up, threw the lead away, then Mason decided the game with a 75th-minute winner. In the other semi, PSG hosted Grenoble, who flew into a 2-0 lead inside 10 minutes. PSG levelled it up after the break and it went to penalties, and Grenoble won the shootout 4-2.
That teed up a repeat of the French Cup Final, with OL Lyonnes hosting Grenoble – which, for some odd reason, took place three weeks after the semis. OLL should have been in front as a great move put Clara clean through, but she shot straight at the keeper, Mason had a goal ruled narrowly offside and then saw a great header rebound off the post. But they continued to dominate and eventually scored as Clara teed up Jónsdóttir, and led 1-0 at halftime after 10 shots to 2. That continued after the break and Mason finally got her goal, curling home after great play down the right, then powered home a header from a corner to kill the game off.
In completely unexpected circumstances, OL Lyonnes were the Champions of France!
An Interesting First Season in France
Holm was overall pretty happy with her first season at OL Lyonnes before the unexpected playoffs. They’d been very competitive in the league and picked up a domestic cup, no thanks to FM26 throwing up its usual shenanigans, but winning the title was very much the cherry on top of the cake. And that saw Holm lead Lyon to their record-extending 25th title in 48 years.
Mason was the surprise star of the season, scoring a new club record 24 with 9 assists in 31 games at a 7.66 average rating. Clara was good with 17 goals and 6 assists, loanee left back Jónsdóttir scored 8 with 6 assists, departing Wilms scored 5 with 11 assists and Durán scored 5 but only got 2 assists.
One thing OL Lyonnes did have was plenty of potential. That was boosted by a good youth intake led by attacker Marie De Jesus, along with striker Lina Froger-Cascarino and midfielder Lilou Aubert.
Would Holm stay in Lyon for another crack at the league while going into the Champions League? Or would she resign and go in search of another opportunity? Join us on Friday to find out!
Football Manager Addict 
Leave a comment