OL: Matthieu Louis-Jean talks about the “shock” of Paulo Fonseca’s departure and assures that there will be “no new project”

We left Paulo Fonseca hyper evasive about his personal future, Sunday evening after OL-Angers (2-0), only able to announce that he would be in charge of Lyon training the next day.

As of Tuesday evening, however, we found images on social networks of the Portuguese coach, all smiles as he arrived with his suitcases at Lisbon airport, to quickly lead Sporting Portugal.

At that time, Olympique Lyonnais had not yet formalized the departure during the season of a coach whom it did not wish to dismiss, an unprecedented event in its history. This has been done since Wednesday morning, with a press release indicating that “compensation of 5 million euros” will be paid by the Lisbon club, “due to the early termination of Paulo Fonseca’s contract”.

A transfer amount that could almost fix the club, of which we know the monstrous financial woes inherited from the John Textor era, in addition to the saving of a considerable monthly salary of 400,000 euros gross (his contract linked him to Lyon until June 30, 2027)? OL sporting director Matthieu Louis-Jean returned to the context of this departure, while the club remains off to an encouraging start to the season, with a 3rd place in Ligue 1 and a good start in the Europa League.

He indicates that he was informed by Paulo Fonseca of his desire to join Sporting Portugal in the middle of last week. “It was a big surprise, a shock,” he confides in a video published on the OL YouTube channel. This situation happened out of nowhere and we absolutely wanted to finish the season with Paulo. »

After speaking with its president Michele Kang and its general manager Michael Gerlinger, Matthieu Louis-Jean specifies: For us, it was out of the question to stop with the coach during the season. But he absolutely wanted to leave, to his “favorite club” as he can say. We had to hear his arguments, we didn’t want a coach who wouldn’t be 150% motivated for OL.”

It was only then that the club wanted to “find its way economically”, in a sporting situation that was clearly suffered. “It was complicated to keep a coach who didn’t want to stay,” continues the sports director. A player who does not have his head at the club does not have the same level of performance. We are very disappointed that Paulo is leaving but we had to react quickly, and that’s what we did. »

Jorge Maciel, who was the assistant coach of Paulo Fonseca, but also of Pierre Sage before, will take charge of OL for the two away matches of the week until the international break, namely against Real Sociedad on Thursday (6:45 p.m.) in the Europa League, then at Brest on Sunday (5:15 p.m.) in Ligue 1. Could he be more than an interim choice on the bench?

“A new coach should arrive at the start of the international break,” says Matthieu Louis-Jean, who wants to reassure Lyon supporters via this media intervention. “We are not starting from scratch at all,” he assures us. This is not a new project, we really want to be in continuity. We built a team together with Paulo. This is the OL team we wanted, with a state of mind for the game project we wanted. And this new coach will have to fit into that. »

If he does not confirm that the future lucky winner will be the Spaniard Carlos Vicens (former assistant to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City then coach of Braga from June 2025 to October 2026), as announced on Sunday in Bola, Matthieu Louis-Jean indicates having had "a few discussions" with his targeted candidate.