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Rachid Ghezzal – Player Profile

Rachid Ghezzal is a winger who rose through the fabled Olympique Lyonnais academy to represent the first team before his career path took him across Europe to England, Italy and Turkey. He re-joined his boyhood club in September 2025, aged 33, to lend his experience to the next crop of youngsters hoping to follow in his footsteps.

A predominantly left-footed player, Ghezzal is comfortable playing off either flank or through the centre. His career highlights to date include Turkish Süper Lig and cup wins along with 22 caps and 2 goals for the Algeria national team.

Born in the Lyon suburb of Décines-Charpieu, where the Groupama Stadium would later be built, he followed in the footsteps of older brother Abdelkader Ghezzal in joining the youth ranks of local club FC Vaulx-en-Velin. Seven and a half years his senior, Abdelkader was already well on the way to his own career in professional football by the time the young Rachid started out.

Indeed, Abdelkader spent a few years in the OL academy between 1998 and 2002 before being released and re-joining Vaulx-en-Velin. The forward then embarked on a senior career that would take him to nine different clubs in Italy as well as Levante in Spain and see him earn 27 caps for Algeria.

The brothers’ time at Vaulx-en-Velin overlapped for a couple of years between 2002 and 2004 until the twelve-year-old Rachid was recruited by the Lyon academy and Abdelkader left to join local rivals Saint-Priest the same summer. Six years later, having risen through the age groups, Rachid Ghezzal made his debut for the Lyon reserve team in the CFA (Championnat de France Amateur).

He spent two seasons learning his trade in the CFA, which was the fourth tier of the French football pyramid at the time. 2010-11 saw him make fourteen appearances and score four goals as Lyon finished 4th in the Groupe C table. In 2011-12, having been moved into the Groupe B region, Lyon romped to the league title with Ghezzal contributing four goals from twenty-one appearances.

Rachid Ghezzal’s breakout season with Lyon came in the 2012-13 campaign under manager Rémi Garde. He played a handful of CFA games in August and September before a call-up to the first team squad came at the start of October. He was thrown straight into the team for a UEFA Europa League group game away at Israeli side Kiryat Shmona. Starting on the left of a front three with Lisandro López in the middle and Jimmy Briand on the right, Ghezzal helped Lyon to 3-2 lead before he was replaced with the experienced Steed Malbranque just after the hour mark. Lyon went on to win 4-3.

Ghezzal’s Ligue 1 debut came a couple of weeks later as a substitute for Bafétimbi Gomis in a 1-0 home win against Brest and he kept his place in the first team squad for the remainder of the season. In total he made twenty appearances (all competitions), including twelve as a starter as Lyon finished third in the table to qualify for the Champions League. He first goal in senior football came at the Stade de Gerland in February 2013. Assisted by López, he tapped in from close range to give Lyon the lead against Lorient, paving the way for a 3-1 win.

International recognition came at the end of the season, courtesy of a call-up to Willy Sagnol’s France U-21 squad for the Toulon Tournament. Ghezzal made his debut as a substitute in their opening group game against the USA and scored the final goal of a 4-1 win. He was a starter in their second fixture, a 1-0 win over RD Congo, alongside his Lyon clubmate Jordan Ferri, but that was the extent of his involvement.

Sadly a back injury kept Rachid Ghezzal on the side-lines for the first half of the 2013-14 campaign and stopped his development in its tracks. He returned to action with the reserves in January 2014 and managed a run of games as he gradually regained match fitness. By March he was training with the first team squad again and made it back onto the bench towards the end of the Ligue 1 season, but it was ultimately a lost year for him without a single minute of first team action.

In August 2014, the twenty-two-year-old Ghezzal finally made his long-awaited return. Hubert Fournier was newly installed as Lyon manager and he brought the winger off the bench to replace Mohamed Yattara late on in a UEFA Europa League qualifier against Astra Giurgiu. Disastrously, Lyon lost 2-1 at home and although they won 1-0 in the second leg with Ghezzal starting, they crashed out on away goals.

Fournier didn’t seem fully persuaded of Ghezzal’s merits and only handed him six starts in Ligue 1 that season, as well as a dozen substitute appearances. Unfortunately Lyon exited all the cup competitions in the early rounds, so it was another frustrating season for Ghezzal with limited opportunities for playing time.

However, things were progressing more positively on the international front. By now, Rachid Ghezzal had declared for Algeria, the country of his parents, and he received his first call up to the national team squad in March 2015. Perhaps his Lyon team mate Yoann Gourcuff put in a good word, for his father Christian Gourcuff was managing the Algeria team at the time.

Gourcuff senior handed Ghezzal his debut in a friendly against Qatar at the Khalifa International Stadium. He played on the left side of attack, supporting centre-forward Islam Slimani, but was withdrawn at half time to be replaced by fellow Lyon graduate Ishak Belfodil. The match ended in a 1-0 defeat for The Fennecs. Ghezzal got a few more minutes of international action four days later as a late substitute in a 4-1 win against Oman.

He went on to be a regular in the Algeria squad over the next three years and made the cut for the Africa Cup of Nations finals in 2017 in Gabon. Disappointingly, Algeria underperformed in that tournament and failed to progress from their group. It would prove to be Ghezzal’s only appearance at a major finals and his international career began to peter out after 2018, with the last of his 22 caps coming in June 2022.

Fournier was still at the helm in Lyon for the start of the 2015-16 season, which meant that Ghezzal was still largely restricted to fleeting appearances from the bench. However, the club’s poor form and group stage exit from the Champions League meant that Fournier got his marching orders in December. His replacement, Bruno Genesio, immediately restored Ghezzal to the starting line-up and was rewarded with a brace of goals in a 7-0 thrashing of Limoges in the Coupe de France.

The following game happened to be the grand opening of the new Groupama Stadium and Ghezzal scored again in a 4-1 win against Troyes. His strike (to make it 2-1) was the third goal ever scored in the new arena and it helped to cement his place as a regular starter under Genesio. Generally deployed as an inverted winger on the right flank, he enjoyed his best run of form in a Lyon shirt during the second half of the season. He scored seven times and provided several assists as Lyon climbed the table to finish second and qualify for the Champions League. His 38 appearances and 10 goals in all competitions would prove to be the best stats he recorded in any season of his career.

Unfortunately Ghezzal missed the first three games of the 2016-17 season with a groin injury and thereafter he struggled to regain and hold down a regular place in the starting line up. He found himself competing for playing time with the likes of Maxwell Cornet, Mathieu Valbuena, Nabil Fekir and, from January onwards, Memphis Depay. He did still manage to reach 38 appearances in all competitions once again, but he was subbed on or off in 33 of them and only scored three goals.

There were some highlights, such as the late goal he scored in the first derby at the Groupama Stadium to secure a 2-0 win against Saint-Étienne, and the header he scored in the Europa League semi-final fightback against Ajax that briefly gave Lyon hope of a place in the final. However, it was ultimately a disappointing season, with Lyon finishing fourth in Ligue 1 and missing out on Champions League qualification.

Ghezzal had got married at Saint-Priest town hall during the winter break, but as that union began, rumours of an impending separation from his boyhood club began to circulate. He had allowed his contract to run down and declined to sign an extension with Lyon, therefore he became a free agent at the end of June 2017. Thus his first spell at the club ended with 119 appearances, 14 goals and 20 assists to his name. Having just turned 25, he wasn’t short of offers and opted to sign for newly crowned French champions AS Monaco in August. That transfer heralded the start of a peripatetic phase of his career during which he changed club in four successive seasons.

Rachid Ghezzal’s season with Monaco under coach Leonardo Jardim was similar to his final season at Lyon in that he was regularly on the bench and only scored a couple of goals. Deployed primarily as a right-winger, he made eleven starts and a further twenty-four substitute appearances as Monaco pipped Lyon to second place behind PSG in the Ligue 1 table. Injuries meant that he didn’t feature in either of the two Ligue 1 fixtures against Lyon. He did, however, face his former club in the Coupe de France when he came off the bench for the last twenty minutes of their 6th Round clash at the Stade Louis II. Lyon ran out 3-2 winners with their opening goal being scored by Ghezzal’s direct replacement, Bertrand Traoré.

Monaco also finished as runners up to PSG in the Coupe de la Ligue. Ghezzal started the final on the bench but was brought on to replace the injured João Moutinho for the last ten minutes of a chastening 3-0 defeat to the Parisians. The Monegasques’ Champions League campaign was equally disappointing. They only picked up two points in finishing bottom of Group G and Ghezzal received the first red card of his career. He was penalised for ‘unsporting behaviour’ in the first half of a 5-2 defeat away to FC Porto in the final group game.

Rachid Ghezzal’s season with Monaco was brought to an abrupt end by his second dismissal. This time another bout of unsporting behaviour earned him two yellow cards in as many minutes in stoppage time at the end of the penultimate game of the season against Saint-Étienne. It proved to be his last action in a Monaco shirt. Nevertheless, he had impressed enough during his time on the Côte d’Azur to catch the eye of Leicester City, who were on the lookout for a replacement for Riyad Mahrez. In July 2018 the Foxes pocketed a cool £60 million from the sale of Mahrez to Manchester City and a month later they invested €14 million of that to prise his compatriot away from Monaco.

There was a familiar face waiting to greet Ghezzal on arrival in the midlands as Leicester’s manager was Frenchman Claude Puel, who had coached Lyon from 2008-11. Although Puel left Lyon just over a year before Ghezzal made his first team debut, he would have been aware of the youngster who was starting to score regularly for the reserves during his final season in charge of the first team.

Ghezzal’s Leicester debut came in the opening Premier League game of the season away to Manchester United at Old Trafford. He came off the bench in the 63rd minute to replace Daniel Amartey with his side trailing 1-0 to a Paul Pogba penalty. Luke Shaw doubled the lead before Jamie Vardy got a late consolation for the visitors.

A first start and first goal in English football came in a League Cup win away at lowly Fleetwood Town in late August. He followed that up a few days later with a goal in a 2-1 defeat against Liverpool at The King Power Stadium to cap a promising start to his Foxes career. Unfortunately that run of two goals in two games was as good as it got for him.

In October 2018, following a 1-1 draw with West Ham United during which Ghezzal was subbed off at half-time, the club was rocked by tragedy. A helicopter carrying club owner and chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and four others crashed shortly after takeoff as it departed the stadium. There were no survivors.

The players carried on bravely, but it must have been difficult to concentrate on football in the wake of such a horrific loss of life so close to home. On the pitch, things took a turn for the worse in the FA Cup Third Round in January where Leicester were handed a trip to League Two Newport County. Puel rotated his line-up and Ghezzal got a start on the right side of attack.

They fell behind early on but battled back and eventually forced an equaliser in the 82nd minute with a left-footed strike from Ghezzal finally beating the Newport goalkeeper. It would prove to be his third and final goal for the club. Three minutes later, Newport won a penalty, which was duly converted and Leicester were dumped out of the cup in what was described as the biggest upset of the season.

That embarrassment was followed by a run of five defeats in their next six league games, which led to Claude Puel receiving his marching orders. Brendan Rodgers arrived as a replacement, but he didn’t seem to fancy Ghezzal and the Algerian only made a pair of late substitute appearances during the remainder of the season.

Finding himself surplus to requirements at Leicester, Ghezzal secured a loan move to Italian Serie A club Fiorentina for the 2019-20 season. In Tuscany he joined up with a talented squad led by coach Vincenzo Montella. There was particularly tough competition for places as a wide forward, with the veteran Franck Ribéry and wonder kid Federico Chiesa vying for game time.

Ghezzal spent much of the first half of the season on the bench, making a few substitute appearances and just three starts. However, Montella was sacked shortly before Christmas and his replacement, Giuseppe Iachini, showed a bit more faith in the Algerian. He got significantly more action in the new year and finished the season as a regular as the Viola climbed to a tenth place finish. His only goal came in a 3-1 win away at Lecce on matchday 33.

Despite the improvement, Fiorentina decided against taking up their option to buy Ghezzal, and he returned to his parent club, Leicester City, in the summer. He still didn’t feature in their plans, so another loan was arranged and this time the destination was Istanbul.

The 2020-21 season with Beşiktaş was the first time in several years that Rachid Ghezzal commanded a regular first team place throughout a full league campaign. He slotted straight into the right-wing position and started the first ten games following his arrival, providing six assists. A hamstring strain kept him out briefly in early January, but he soon continued where he’d left off.

In fact, he enjoyed one of the best periods of form in his entire career as Beşiktaş mounted a serious title challenge. The assists kept coming and he eventually rediscovered his shooting boots, scoring seven times in the final ten Süper Lig games of the season. Each of those strikes was to prove crucial for Beşiktaş as the title race went right down to the wire.They finished level on points with their cross-town rivals Galatasaray and couldn’t be split on head-to-head record so it came down to goal difference.

Beşiktaş travelled to Göztepe on the last day of the season and their chances were hanging in the balance with the game deadlocked at 1-1 midway though the second period when Cyle Larin was fouled in the box and a penalty was awarded. Ghezzal took on the responsibility from twelve yards with the hopes of a whole fanbase resting on his shoulders. He calmly sent the goalkeeper the wrong way to score the goal that sealed the title. Fittingly for a son of Lyon, it was in the 69th minute.

Beşiktaş ended up winning the title by the narrowest of margins. Incredibly, just a single goal separated them from Galatasaray in the final standings. The Turkish championship was the first major honour of Ghezzal’s career and to top it off he was elected Süper Lig player of the month for April 2021. His 17 assists put him top of the Süper Lig rankings on that count and he made it into the Süper Lig team of the season as well as being selected as the best foreign player in the Süper Lig for 2020-21.

However, his season wasn’t finished yet. Three days later Beşiktaş were in action again in the Turkish Cup final against Antalyaspor and Ghezzal earned his second trophy of the week. His assist for Rosier to make it 2-0 on the half-hour wrapped up the scoring and sealed the double for the Black Eagles. Unsurprisingly, in the wake of the best season of his career, Beşiktaş were keen to retain Rachid Ghezzal’s services and they agreed a €3 million fee with Leicester to make his loan permanent.

So in 2021-22, for the first time in five years, Ghezzal started a season at the same club that he finished the previous. It was, however, a tall order to follow up the success of the previous campaign, and Beşiktaş struggled to replicate their title winning form. Their UEFA Champions League performance was particularly disappointing, losing all six games in Group C, although Ghezzal did score his first ever goal in that competition in a 2-1 defeat to Ajax.

He didn’t manage to repeat his impressive numbers in the Süper Lig, but still returned a respectable four goals and seven assists from his 35 appearances. Unfortunately Beşiktaş slumped to a sixth place finish and missed out on European qualification altogether, so it was a underwhelming title defence, despite the presence of former Lyon star Miralem Pjanić on loan from Barcelona for the season.

The 2022-23 campaign was something of a write-off for Rachid Ghezzal. It started well enough, with him scoring the only goal of a 1-0 home win against Kayserispor on the opening day, and bagging another in the following match. However, that was as good as it got as he succumbed to a series of injuries including a broken finger, pneumonia, a toe injury, a hamstring strain and a dead leg. These repeated setbacks limited him to just seven starts and four substitute appearances with only the two goals to his name.

Now in his early thirties, Ghezzal managed to put his injury nightmare behind him and return to full fitness shortly after the start of the 2023-24 season. He enjoyed a decent run of consecutive games in the Süper Lig and started to weigh in again with some assists and a goal. However, it was a turbulent season for the Black Eagles and they worked their way through four managers on the way to a disappointing sixth place finish.

There was a controversial episode mid-season when Ghezzal was suspended by the club and excluded from the squad for almost a month along with four team mates (Vincent Aboubakar, Valentin Rosier, Eric Bailly and Jean Onana). The quintet were accused of poor performances and incompatibility with the team. Bailly, Rosier and Onana all soon departed, but Ghezzal was reintegrated after missing three matches and featured regularly under new manager Fernando Santos.

Beşiktaş flopped in the UEFA Conference League, but things went much better in the Turkish Cup, with Ghezzal starting both legs of the semi-final victory against Ankaragücü. That set up a final against Trabzonspor at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in May. He started the final in his customary right-wing position and made a decisive contribution on the stroke of half time when he converted a penalty to level the scores at one apiece. He was replaced just after the hour mark, with Beşiktaş leading 2-1 and although they were pegged back, they snatched a late winner to clinch the cup and give Ghezzal the third major trophy of his career.

The cup final proved to be his penultimate game for Beşiktaş as his three-year contract came to an end. His farewell appearance was a late cameo away at Kasımpaşa on the last day of the Süper Lig season and then he became a free agent. Fittingly, he departed on a high, having left a big mark on the history of the club with key contributions to their three most recent successes.

A couple of months later Rachid Ghezzal wound up at Çaykur Rizespor, based in Rize towards the far eastern end of Turkey’s Black Sea coast. Something of a yo-yo club, they were starting their second season back in the top flight following promotion in 2023. Ghezzal’s vast experience was a useful addition to their squad and he quickly established himself as a first team regular, racking up 25 appearances across all competitions and scoring four times. He also collected the third red card of his career, for swearing at a referee during a defeat away to Fenerbahçe.

Çaykur Rizespor finished a creditable ninth in the table, but Ghezzal wasn’t retained for the following season, which left him once again seeking a new club as a free agent. That’s where his story turned full circle with a return home to Lyon after eight seasons away. His arrival bolstered a thinly spread squad that was competing on three fronts and gave Lyon an handy option on the right-wing as they waited for Ernest Nuamah to return from a long-term injury.

Ghezzal’s contract at Lyon takes him through to June 2026, by which time he’ll be thirty four and may well decide to call time on his playing career. He’s already begun studying a sports management course with a view to a future in coaching once he hangs up his boots.

Thus far he has mainly featured as a substitute this season. His ‘second debut’ came when he replaced Adam Karabec in the 67th minute of a defeat at Rennes on matchday four and he went on to make a total of nine appearances prior to the winter break. His most telling contribution came in the UEFA Europa League tie away at FC Utrecht where he set up the only goal for Tanner Tessmann. It later transpired that he was actually ineligible for the Europa League group stage, having been signed a few days after the deadline for squad additions. Fortunately UEFA admitted it was their mistake in allowing him to be registered for the competition and the club wasn’t sanctioned for the error.

It remains to be seen what the future holds for Ghezzal when his contract expires at the end of the current season. Will he be offered an extension, or perhaps move into a role on the coaching staff, or maybe he will part ways with the club once again. Whatever happens, here’s hoping that he can bow out on a high with a trophy at Lyon, just as he did at Beşiktaş.

Ruben Kluivert – Player Profile

Ruben Kluivert is a right-footed central defender who joined Lyon in the summer of 2025. The twenty-four-year-old moved from Portuguese Primeira Liga side Casa Pia for a fee of €3.78 million and signed a five-year contract with the French club.

He is one of four sons of former Netherlands striker Patrick Kluivert who are making a name for themselves in European football. His older brother Justin plays as a forward for Bournemouth in the English Premier League whilst his younger half-brother Shane is in the youth ranks at Barcelona. The oldest of the four, Quincy, has been on the books at several Dutch clubs.

Youth football in the Netherlands

Ruben Kluivert was born in Amsterdam in May 2001, mid-way through his father’s six-year spell with Barcelona. His parents divorced in 2004 and whilst Patrick roamed Europe playing for Newcastle, Valencia, PSV and Lille, Ruben started his own football journey in his hometown with Amsterdamsche FC. Founded in 1895, Amsterdam’s oldest football club have produced a whole host of top players over the years, including the likes of Daley Blind and Bryan Brobbey, so it provided a great platform from which to launch his career.

However, Kluivert left them in 2018 to join the youth ranks at FC Utrecht, some 40 kilometres to the south of Amsterdam. There the seventeen-year-old was placed in the U-19 squad and made his debut in a 2-0 Dutch U-19 Cup defeat at AZ Alkmaar. Playing at centre-back, he got an assist the following weekend in a 3-1 victory against Volendam in the U-19 league. He didn’t feature again until the spring, when he returned to the team for a 12-game unbeaten run, which saw them finish second in the U-19 Division 2 table. That run also included the first goal of his career, against De Graafschap U-19.

There was more of the same the following season as Kluivert continued to gain experience at U-19 level. In January 2020, he stepped up to make his debut for the U-21 side in a 3-1 defeat at SC Cambuur. The Utrecht U-21 team, known as Jong Utrecht (Young Utrecht), are one of a handful of reserve teams who compete in the second tier of the Dutch football pyramid, so this match constituted Kluivert’s senior debut. He made one further appearance for Jong Utrecht in February 2020 before football was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Early experience at Utrecht

When football resumed in August, Ruben Kluivert was a regular in the Jong Utrecht squad and he went on to make 21 appearances in the Eerste Divisie that season, scoring once, as his club struggled to an 18th place finish. Another season at the same level followed in 2021-22 although injuries hampered his playing time during the first half of the campaign. He came on strongly after the turn of the year and even captained the side on several occasions as they toiled towards another 18th place finish.

By the end of that season, Kluivert found himself on the bench for the FC Utrecht first team as they chased a European spot in the top-flight Eredivisie. He got on for his debut in the last home game of the season, a 2-2 draw against AZ Alkmaar. Manager Rick Kruys brought him off the bench in the final minute to replace retiring club captain Willem Janssen.

However, that fleeting appearance didn’t quite herald a breakthrough and the young centre-back remained on the fringe of the first team throughout the following 2022-23 campaign. His playing time was divided equally between the FC Utrecht and Jong Utrecht teams, making thirteen league appearances for each. In the close-season, the club hierarchy decided that his future lay elsewhere and Kluivert was allowed to move to FC Dordrecht on a free transfer.

Developing at Dordrecht

Kluivert’s Dordrecht debut, under manager Michele Santoni, came against his former club when he was brought on for the final minutes of a 3-3 draw against Jong Utrecht at the Stadion Krommedijk. His first start for his new club came in a 1-0 win at TOP Oss three days later, but his progress was stopped in its tracks in the closing stages of the very next game, when he suffered a syndesmosis ligament tear.

That injury kept him on the side-lines until the new year, but he soon re-established himself as a starter and helped Dordrecht finish the season with a 13 game unbeaten run to reach the promotion play-offs, where they lost to Emmen over two legs. Kluivert celebrated his 23rd birthday three days after that play-off disappointment and, having been a consistent performer in the Dutch second tier for the best part of four seasons, decided it was time to seek a move and progress his career elsewhere.

Onwards and upwards

An opportunity for top-flight football came from Casa Pia of the Portuguese Primeira Liga and he jumped at the chance to try his luck with the Lisbon-based club, who shelled out €900,000 for his services. Ruben Kluivert made his debut as a late substitute on matchday 5 of the season in a 3-1 home win against Moreirense. Manager João Pereira handed him a first start two games later in a 1-1 draw against Vitória Guimarães SC, which was the first of seven successive starts for the young Dutchman. During that run he scored the only goal of a 1-0 win against Nacional.

However, Kluivert was relegated to the bench for the next twelve games before regaining a starting spot towards the end of the season. An adductor injury caused him to miss the final four matches as Casa Pia finished a creditable ninth in the table and he finished with a tally of 13 starts plus 8 substitute appearances in the Primeira Liga and a further 3 starts in the Taça de Portugal.

Given his relatively low-profile career thus far, it was something of a surprise when Lyon came in with a €3.78 million offer to buy him in summer 2025. Their Portuguese manager Paulo Fonseca must have heard good reports on him emanating from his homeland and opted to recruit him as a back-up for centre-backs Clinton Mata and Moussa Niakhaté.

Finding his feet in Lyon

As expected, Ruben Kluivert began his Lyon career on the bench, but he came off it to make his debut in the second Ligue 1 fixture of the season at home to Metz. He replaced Mata for the final few minutes of the comfortable 3-0 win. Similarly brief cameo appearances followed in the subsequent two games before he was handed his first start in Lyon’s opening UEFA Europa League fixture.

Fittingly, the draw for that competition had thrown up a trip back to FC Utrecht, where he had taken his first steps in senior football just a few years earlier. He lined up at right-back for Lyon at the Stadion Galgenwaard and made some positive attacking contributions in a 1-0 win. Kluivert’s first goal for Lyon came in the next Europa League encounter, where his header from a Karabec corner wrapped up a 2-0 win against RB Salzburg.

He made a couple of starts in Ligue 1 before an ankle sprain in November kept him out of action for a month. Handily, his comeback in December coincided with the departure of both Mata and Niakhaté to the Africa Cup of Nations. Kluivert stepped up to fill the massive void in the Lyon defence that was created by their absence and played the full 90 minutes in the next three games.

That run of three wins included the major scalps of AS Monaco in the league and Lille in the Coupe de France and his assured performances proved that he’s ready to be counted on whenever required. His versatility allows him to fill in at either right-back or centre-back and should mean that he gains more playing time in the second half of the season. It has been a promising start to his Lyon career, which bodes well for his future at the club.

Imagination

It was a cold autumn day and the garden which lay at the back of the Blackburns’ manor was still and quiet. There was no sign of life in the garden except for the young girl sitting on the wrought iron bench. She was looking at her surroundings, at the towering hedges around the flower bed with curled up dead roses, and the dull wood planks on the patio. There were little bird feeders around the garden but none had food on them and any birds that might have visited them had long since left for good. This young girl was named Hilda Blackburn. Hilda closed her eyes and tucked her little hands in her lap. She took a deep breath and imagined.

The garden she now saw was something new, something wonderful. In place of the shrivelled up roses were fragrant peonies and instead of the tall hedges there were lovely peach trees. The peaches hanging off of them were at the peak of ripeness and young robins flew from branch to branch. Hilda picked up some birdseed from the nearest bird feeder and fed it to a little flock of starlings who were playing on the luscious green lawn. Daisies covered the grass and Hilda made a daisy chain and gently placed it on her head. Then she walked slowly over to the patio. Young rabbits were frolicking on it and when she stepped on to it they came rushing up to her. She knelt down and let them play with her petite fingers until they ran off to munch on the berries growing from one of the many fruit bushes. She skipped over to a pond that had appeared and scooped up a little frog. She stroked its slimy head before returning it to its lily-pad.

The sun shone brightly and Hilda bundled up her skirts and sat on a red and white chequered rug. There were scrumptious treats laid out, ginger beer, prawn sandwiches and delectable lemon tarts. For a while she sat and ate, then she got back up and went to gaze at the huge fountain with crystal clear water spouting from the top and splashing into a marble basin. Hilda sighed contentedly as a cool breeze swept over the garden. She listened, she heard the heavenly sound of birdsong and the quiet rustling of the leaves. Hilda took a breath, this is all she could ever ask for, a retreat away from the hustle of life. If only, she thought, if only. Hilda skipped round in circles taking it all in.

The world had started to fade away and Hilda walked to the bench carefully taking another look at everything that she had seen one last time. She sat down on the bench, and opened her eyes. The garden was the same as it had been before she had re-imagined it, but now she had seen it in a new light. She smiled to herself as she ran joyfully back to her house.

Martín Satriano – Player Profile

Martín Satriano is a Uruguayan forward who joined Lyon on loan from Lens for the 2025-26 season. He arrived at the end of the summer transfer window when Lyon had been left without a senior striker following the sudden departure of Georges Mikautadze to Villarreal. Lyon had also lost club legend Alexandre Lacazette during a summer of financial turmoil and were in desperate need of someone experienced to lead the line.

Satriano had actually signed a permanent deal with Lens only a couple of months earlier, having spent the previous season on-loan there from Internazionale of Milan. That loan deal included an obligation to buy for €5 million if Lens avoided relegation from Ligue 1 in 2024-25, which they duly did. However, they weren’t counting on him for the following campaign and made him available for transfer.

Lyon reportedly paid a €1 million loan fee to Lens to secure the Uruguayan’s services and have an option to make the move permanent next summer for €5 million (including add-ons). This is the fifth season in a row that Satriano will spend on-loan rather than playing at his parent club. He turned 24 in February 2025 and has reached the stage of his career where he needs to finally establish himself as a regular starter somewhere.

Italian roots

Born in Montevideo in 2001, Martín Adrián Satriano Costa, to give him his full name, is eligible to represent both Uruguay and Italy in international football courtesy of Italian ancestry on his father’s side of the family. In fact, his father, Gerardo Satriano, is a former footballer who represented Club Atlético Bella Vista of Montevideo in the 1980’s. Satriano junior began his own career in the Uruguayan capital when he joined the ranks of local giants Nacional as a fourteen year old and he quickly emerged as one of their hottest young prospects.

Martín Satriano’s playing style drew comparisons with that of another illustrious Nacional academy product, Luis Suarez. However, unlike Suarez, Satriano never went on to represent the first team at Nacional. Instead he was scouted by Internazionale and tempted into making the move to Europe shortly before his nineteenth birthday in early 2020. Inter reportedly paid Nacional a transfer fee of around €2.4 million.

Move to Milano

Initially he played in the Primavera (U-19) team at Inter but it was a challenging time to try and settle in a new country. He arrived in Italy as the world plunged into the turmoil of the Covid-19 pandemic and northern Italy was particularly hard hit. Satriano made just four appearances in the Primavera 1, scoring once and providing three assists, before the season was abandoned due to the first lockdown.

The 2020-21 campaign was also disrupted by further lockdown mandates, but they did at least manage to complete the season and Satriano was a regular starter up front for Inter in the Primavera 1. He made 30 appearances for their U-19 side in the league and cup, scoring 14 goals and laying on 6 assists. Those performances earned him a promotion to Simone Inzaghi’s senior squad for the start of the following season and he made his full Inter debut on the opening weekend of the 2021-22 Serie A calendar.

San Siro debut

Those first steps as a senior pro came at the San Siro where he came off the bench in the 77th minute to replace Hakan Çalhanoğlu with Inter leading 3-0 against Genoa. The home side went on to secure a 4-0 victory. All in all, Satriano went on to make four Serie A appearances for Inter in the first half of the season, all as a late substitute. He was involved in three wins and a draw.

Travelling with the first team squad meant that his Primavera appearances were now limited. He did manage three appearances for them but his playing time was further curtailed by a suspension after he picked up the first red card of his career for violent conduct in stoppage time of a defeat to Roma. Midway through the season, in January 2022, the Inter hierarchy decided that the best plan for Satriano’s development was to send him out on loan to gain experience in senior football and hopefully get some more playing time.

First spell on loan

So it was that Martín Satriano arrived in Brest for his first taste of Ligue 1 in the far-flung reaches of west Brittany. After a couple of substitute appearances, manager Michel Der Zakarian handed him a first start in a home match against lowly Troyes and he responded with a quick-fire brace. Those first two goals of his senior career set his new club on the way to a thumping 5-1 win. He followed it up with another strike a week later in a 1-1 draw at Reims and then had to wait a few games before finding the net again in a 2-1 win at Montpellier.

Satriano was a starter for Brest when Lyon visited the Stade Francis-Le Blé in April 2022 and his intelligent forward play caused plenty of problems for Peter Bosz’s team. He ran himself into the ground and was substituted shortly after the home side scored their 74th minute winner, having also picked up a yellow card. There were to be no further goals for Satriano that season and his loan spell ended with a tally of four from 15 Ligue 1 appearances.

International call-up

The following season Inter decided to keep their young prospect closer to home and give him a taste of Serie A via a loan to Empoli. It was a tough introduction to life in the Italian top flight as Empoli were not a free-scoring side, finding the net only 37 times in 38 games during their battle to a respectable 14th place finish. Manager Paolo Zanetti placed a lot of faith in the young Uruguayan, making him Empoli’s most used striker during the season, but Satriano was only on the scoresheet twice (against Salernitana and Monza).

Despite his struggle for goals, Satriano had caught the eye of Uruguay boss Diego Alonso and he was called up to the national team squad in September 2022. He earned his first, and to date only, cap in a friendly against Canada at the Tehelné Pole stadium in Bratislava. He came off the bench in the 61st minute to replace Darwin Núñez with the Uruguayans already two goals to the good and helped them see out the 2-0 victory.

Back to Brest

Come the start of the 2023-24 season, Internazionale still didn’t consider him ready to compete for a first team spot, so he was loaned out once again. Brest, now under the stewardship of former Lyon midfielder Éric Roy, were eager to bring Satriano back to Brittany for a second stint, so this time he joined them on a season-long deal.

It proved to be a remarkable campaign for ‘Les Pirates’ as they defied all expectations to record the highest finish in their 121 year history. Third place in Ligue 1 was secured on the final day of the season, which qualified them for the UEFA Champions League for the first time. Satriano won many plaudits for his workrate and unselfish team play when leading the line, although he only managed a slightly disappointing four goals in the league from 33 appearances. In mitigation, it is worth noting that the goals were shared quite evenly around the Brest squad, with no player scoring more than eight.

Injury nightmare at Lens

Never one for spending two seasons in the same place, Martín Satriano didn’t stick around in Brittany to experience the Champions League football that he had helped to earn. Instead he was loaned from Inter to Racing Club de Lens for 2025-26, with the aforementionned obligation to buy. Unfortunately that loan spell turned into something of a personal nightmare as he tore cruciate ligaments in just his fourth match for ‘Les Sang et Or’. The injury consigned him to a spell of seven months on the sidelines and he only returned to action for the last three games of the season.

His comeback match was against Lyon at the Groupama Stadium in May. He came off the bench to play the final twenty minutes of a 2-1 win for Lens and made further substitute appearances in the following two matches. However, it was essentially a lost year for the striker, as his total playing time for Lens amounted to a meagre 81 minutes with no goals scored. Despite his injury woes Lens were, of course, obliged to buy him, having finished eighth in the table.

Loan to Lyon

All of which brings us back to the current season and his loan from Lens to Lyon. As a striker who has never managed more than four goals in a season and is feeling his way back from a serious injury, he’s not exactly hot property at the moment. However, Lyon were in desperate need of a striker available on the cheap, so he’s been handed the chance to rekindle his career at another big club.

It has been a slow start for Satriano at Lyon so far, with no goals and a solitary assist from his six appearances in Ligue 1. He did find the net in the UEFA Europa League in a 2-0 win against RB Salzburg, but has looked an isolated figure at times in a Lyon shirt. He often seems to be ploughing a lonely furrow up front and his game isn’t ideally suited to that of a lone targetman. It seems doubtful that he’ll be able to score enough goals to convince the Lyon management that he’s a long-term solution to their striker problem, but he has a good work ethic and is doing a decent enough job in the short term.

Lyon 2-0 RB Salzburg – Satriano and Kluivert open their accounts

Olympique Lyonnais made it two wins from two at the start of their UEFA Europa League campaign with a comfortable victory against RB Salzburg at the Groupama Stadium in Lyon. They are one of seven teams with maximum points after two rounds, alongside Dinamo Zagreb, Midtjylland, Aston Villa, Braga, Lille and Porto at the top of the table.

Lyon started strongly and won a penalty inside five minutes when a shot from Mathys de Carvalho was handled inside the box. However, Pavel Šulc saw his tame penalty well saved by Salzburg goalkeeper Alexander Schlager diving to his left.

Schlager undid his good work a few minutes later when his poor pass towards Terzic was anticipated by Adam Karabec, who intercepted it on the edge of the box and crossed with precision for Satriano to head home his first goal for Lyon.

Karabec continued to cause problems for the visitors as he delivered a number of inviting crosses from the right flank, one of which was nearly turned in by Tagliafico. As the half wore on, RB Salzburg finally managed to carve out some openings of their own and their Belgian forward Yorbe Vertessen threatened twice but couldn’t conjure an equaliser.

Lyon doubled their advantage eleven minutes into the second half following a corner from Karabec. It fell to Šulc, whose shot was headed off the line by Stefan Lainer, before finding its way back out to Karabec. The Czech winger delivered another peach of a ball into the box and Ruben Kluivert, up from the back, leapt to head the ball expertly inside the far post to notch up his first goal for the club.

There were further chances for Tolisso and Satriano but Lyon couldn’t add to their goal tally. Dominik Greif was called into action a few times but never looked like conceding his first goal in a Lyon shirt and duly recorded his fourth clean sheet in as many matches. It’s now four wins in a row for Paulo Fonseca’s men in all competitions.

Lille 0-1 Lyon

Lyon continued their excellent start to the Ligue 1 season with a brilliant backs-to-the-wall win against Lille at the Decathlon Arena. English midfielder Tyler Morton scored the only goal with a header in the 13th minute and Lyon defended resolutely thereafter to protect their lead.

The win means that Lyon keep pace with Paris-Saint Germain at the top of the Ligue 1 table. The pair are both on 15 points, three clear of Marseille, Monaco and Strasbourg in joint third, although PSG’s goal difference is three better than Lyon’s. Lille drop down to sixth.

Lyon manager Paulo Fonseca named a strong team against his former club, but again opted to line up without a recognised striker in the starting XI. The extra body in midfield afforded them plenty of possession early on and it didn’t take them long to find a breakthrough.

Morton was lurking behind the Lille defence and he cleverly moved back onside just as Argentinian left-back Nicolás Tagliafico sent in a cross. The Englishman found space between the two Lille centre-backs and headed expertly back across goal and into the net, leaving Lille ‘keeper Arnaud Bodart with no chance.

Lille almost struck back within two minutes when the ball fell invitingly to DR Congo international midfielder Ngal’ayel Mukau just seven yards out from goal. However, he fired his shot straight at Lyon goalkeeper Dominik Greif, who blocked it with his shoulder, perhaps more by luck than judgement. Greif had already saved well from Fernandez-Pardo early on and he continued to frustrate the home side for the rest of the game.

Olivier Giroud was a constant threat in the Lyon box but he came off second best in his battle with Mata and Niakhaté, who have formed a formidable partnership in the heart of the Lyon defence. Iceland international Hákon Arnar Haraldsson came close with a low shot from close range in the 66th minute, but steered his effort wide of the near post.

The equaliser really should have come three minutes later when Félix Correia had an open goal to aim at, but put his shot over the bar. Perhaps that miss made Lille realise that it wasn’t going to be their day and the frustration on the bench soon boiled over when their former Lyon manager, Bruno Genesio, was sent off for kicking a crate of water bottles.

Lille continued to exert pressure but couldn’t find a way through. Their rhythm was perhaps disrupted by the litany of fouls that punctuated play. The total of 44 is the highest recorded in a Ligue 1 match in the past five and a half years going back to February 2020. Greif made another excellent save from Sahraoui late on and some last ditch defending helped to preserve the clean sheet. An impressive achievement as it brought to an end Lille’s run of scoring in sixty consecutive home matches across all competitions going back to February 2023.

It was a sixth clean sheet in seven matches for Lyon this season (all competitions) and they have yet to concede at all with eleven men on the pitch. Greif has begun his Lyon career with three consecutive clean sheets and is beginning to look like a real bargain.

Utrecht 0-1 Lyon – Tessmann strikes again

Lyon opened up their UEFA Europa League campaign with a win and a fifth clean sheet in their opening six games of the 2025-26 season. It was a tense game with few clear-cut opportunities for either team, but Lyon dominated the possession and won it with a wonder strike from USA international midfielder Tanner Tessmann in the 75th minute. It was his second winning goal for the club in the space of six days, following his goal against Angers at the weekend.

Lyon fielded a much changed team from the Angers fixture, with Maitland-Niles, Tessmann and Merah being rested whereas captain Corentin Tolisso was suspended due to his red card in the defeat at Old Trafford in the same competition last April. In came Ruben Kluivert and Mathys De Carvalho, both making their first starts for the club, as well as Tyler Morton and Pavel Šulc.

Utrecht were quick out of the blocks, forcing Dominik Greif to make his first save in the fourth minute when a shot from outside the box deflected off Morton and looped towards the top corner. They had another good chance from a corner kick moments later when the ball was flicked on by Mike van der Hoorn and narrowly evaded his centre-back partner Nick Viergever, who was following in for a tap-in at the far post.

Lyon soon settled into their rhythm after that ropey start and began to exert a measure of control on proceedings. However, they didn’t really threaten the Utrecht goal until after the interval. Their first chance of note came from a corner on the right, which was flicked on by Niakhaté to where Kluivert was attacking the far post. The Dutch defender almost opened the scoring against his former club as he stooped to head it back across goal, but he was denied by an outstretched arm from Utrecht’s Greek goalkeeper Vasilis Barkas.

A flurry of substitutions by Lyon manager Paulo Fonseca in the 65th minute changed the game in their favour. On came Maitland-Niles, Ghezzal, Tessmann and Moreira. Incredibly, the four of them combined for the goal some ten minutes later. Maitland-Niles fed Moreira down the left wing, where his run had taken him in behind the Utrecht defence. He cut the ball back across the box to Ghezzal, who laid it off the Tessmann, advancing from central midfield. The American struck the ball as sweetly as he’s ever done before, firing it into the top corner past a helpless Barkas from twenty-five yards out.

Moreira’s pace continued to cause problems for the home side and he tested Barkas again in the 85th minute before Utrecht created a great chance for an equaliser late on. The ball fell to Ivory Coast international striker Sébastien Haller on the edge of the six-yard box, but he couldn’t sort his feet out in time and only managed a tame lunging prod straight into the arms of a relieved Dominik Greif in the Lyon goal.

Dominik Greif – Player Profile

Dominik Greif is a Slovak international goalkeeper who joined Olympique Lyonnais in August 2025. He was signed from Spanish club Real Mallorca for a fee of €4 million, which could rise as high as €5.25 million with add-ons if certain conditions are met. Greif will compete with Rémy Descamps for the number one spot in the Lyon line-up this season.

A financial crisis forced Lyon to sell the majority of their first team players during the summer and the departures included first choice goalkeeper Lucas Perri (to Leeds United). Grief was quickly identified as a potential replacement. Tall and imposing in his box, with an impressive palmarès, he was keen to come and test himself in Ligue 1.

Lyon actually played against Mallorca in a pre-season friendly in Austria when rumours of their interest in Greif had already been circulating for a few days. Lyon won easily, putting four goals past their hapless opponents, but they didn’t get a first hand look at Greif as he wasn’t involved on the day. Nevertheless, negotiations were initiated and less than three weeks later Greif arrived in Lyon to sign a four year deal.

Rise through the ranks

Born in the Slovak capital, Bratislava, in 1997, Dominik Greif began playing youth football with ŠK Vrakuňa Bratislava based in the Vrakuňa district to the east of the city centre. He was soon scouted by local giants Slovan Bratislava and duly joined their junior ranks.

In February 2014, aged sixteen and ten months, he received a call-up for the Slovakia U-17 team and played in a friendly against Sweden at La Manga in Spain. Towards the end of the following season, he began to feature on the bench for the Slovan reserve team playing in the second tier of the Slovak football pyramid, the DOXXbet liga.

Greif got his chance in the third game of the 2015-16 season when he was handed the gloves for a DOXXbet liga match away at Trnava reserves. He kept a clean sheet in a 1-0 win and subsequently became the first choice ‘keeper for Slovan reserves. However, his stint in the reserves would prove to be short-lived as his progress continued apace.

First team debut

Dominik Greif’s first taste of first team action came in the early rounds of the Slovak Cup, known as the Slovnaft Cup due to a sponsorship agreement with an oil refining company. He kept goal in wins against FC Nitra and Pohronie in autumn 2015 before the senior goalkeeper, Jan Mucha, took over for the subsequent rounds. Slovan made it all the way to the final, where they lost 3-1 to AS Trencin with Grief on the bench,

Towards the end of that 2015-16 campaign, Grief became a regular on the bench for the first team and he made his Fortuna Liga (top division) debut in the penultimate game of the season, a 1-1 draw at Michalovce. He kept his place the following weekend for the 2-2 draw with Podbrezova that brought down the curtain on the Fortuna Liga season with Slovan finishing in second place to qualify for the Europa League.

Decisive at both ends of the pitch

At the same time as he was gradually working his way into the first team reckoning at Slovan, Dominik Greif moved up to the Slovak U-19 squad that was attempting to qualify for the U19 Euros. His debut at that level was nothing short of sensational. It came on the 12th of November 2015 against Russia at the Slava Metreveli Central Stadium in Sochi.

The Russians were leading 1-0 deep into injury time when Slovakia won a corner and Greif went up to see if his height could cause any problems in the opposing box. He jumped to meet the cross, but didn’t connect. However, his Russian counterpart flapped at it and the ball fell near the opportunistic Greif, who instinctively back-heeled it into the net. His last gasp equaliser salvaged a 1-1 draw for the Slovaks and made it an unforgettable debut. There’s some very grainy footage of it set to a jaunty tune on YouTube.

He went on to play three more times for the Slovakia U-19 side that season, but unsurprisingly couldn’t repeat his goalscoring heroics.

Kings of the cup

The 2016-17 season saw the nineteen-year-old Greif divide his time fairly equally between the reserves and the first team at Slovan. He made 14 appearances for the reserves and 9 for the first team. It was another second place finish for Slovan in the Fortuna Liga, but they went one better than the previous season in the Slovnaft Cup, beating second division Skalica 3-0 in the final. This time Grief was part of the action, playing the full ninety minutes as Mucha was injured. The clean sheet was the cherry on the cake as Slovan lifted the cup for the first time since 2013 and it represents the first major honour of Greif’s career.

There were no more spells in the reserves during the 2017-18 season as Greif was now very much part of the first team squad. He began the season as number one and played every Fortuna Liga game of the regular season bar the last three when he was relegated to the bench. He remained side-lined for the championship play-off group as Michal Sulla took over goalkeeping duties for Slovan, and he also missed out on the cup final where they retained their they trophy with a 3-1 win against Ruzomberok.

Full international

The 2018-19 season could be said to be the campaign where Dominik Greif’s career really took off. He regained the number one slot from Sulla in the second Fortuna Liga game of the season and never looked back. Greif kept ten clean sheets in 29 appearances as Slovan stormed to the title by a massive margin of seventeen points. It was their ninth Slovak title and first since 2014.

Greif was named in the Fortuna Liga Best XI for 2018-19 and his performances were also rewarded with further international recognition. A call up to the U-21 squad came in September 2018 and he made his debut for them in a 3-0 win against Italy U21 at the MOL Aréna. That was followed by a call up to the full international team in June 2019 under coach Pavel Hapal. His debut came as a half-time substitute in a 5-1 friendly win against Jordan at the Anton Malatinský Stadium in Trnava.

Dominik Greif’s second cap and first start for the national team came four months later, in October 2019. He played the full ninety minutes of a friendly against Paraguay at the Tehelné pole in Bratislava and was not beaten until the 85th minute of the 1-1 draw.

Double double delight

Domestically the 2019-20 season was a walk in the park for Slovan. They again won the Fortuna Liga by a seventeen point margin and completed a double with a cup final victory against Ruzomberok. The goalkeepers were rotated for the cup fixtures, so Greif sat on the bench while Sulla deputised in the final. When it came to the post-season awards, Greif swept the board, winning the overall Fortuna Liga Player of the Year trophy. He also picked up the Goalkeeper of the Year award and of course made it into the team of the season.

In European competition, Slovan came through eight qualifying matches to reach the group stage of the UEFA Europa League where they faced Besiktas, SC Braga and Wolverhampton Wanderers. They beat Besiktas 4-2 at home in the opening game, with Greif getting an assist for the first goal, and they got a creditable draw at Braga in the second game. However, they didn’t pick up any further points and were eliminated.

The 2020-21 season followed very much in the same vein as its predecessor. Slovan retained the double, although this time they only finished six points clear at the top of the league table. Once again the ‘keepers were rotated for the cup matches, so Sulla got to play in the win over MSK Zilina in the final. Once again Greif was named best goalkeeper and made it into the team of the season.

Their European campaign was curtailed in its infancy this time around. The Covid pandemic meant that qualification matches were only played over a single leg and they went out at the first hurdle in both Champions League and Europa League qualifying. Greif did pick up his third and fourth international caps during the season, in a pair of UEFA Nations League B defeats at home to Czechia and Israel.

Move to Mallorca

In the summer of 2021, Dominik Greif submitted a transfer request, having achieved everything that he could possibly achieve in Slovak football. There had been plenty of interest in him from abroad over the years and it was newly promoted La Liga side RCD Mallorca who secured his signature for an undisclosed fee, rumoured to be around €2.5 million. Thus ended his thirteen year association with Slovan Bratislava. He left the club with a tally of 132 first team appearances, 46 clean sheets and just 135 goals conceded.

Greif joined a Mallorca squad that contained former Lyon midfield star Clement Grenier and future Athletic Club midfielder Iñigo Ruiz de Galarreta. Manager Luis García had made a number of new signings in order to help the club adjust to life in the top division and Greif was expected to start as a reserve and eventually compete for the number one spot. Unfortunately his first few seasons at the club were blighted by a succession of injuries and illnesses.

Greif began the on the bench but got his chance in the seventh game of the season when Mallorca took on Osasuna at the Son Moix stadium. However, he was beaten three times in a 3-2 defeat and returned to the bench until a Copa del Rey First Round tie at Gimnastica Segoviana on the 1st of December. This one went to extra time but Mallorca won through and Greif got his first clean sheet in Spanish football in a 2-0 win.

Injury grief for Greif

That’s when his health problems kicked in and he didn’t feature in a matchday squad again from the 4th of December until the end of the season. With just the two appearances, he ended up being Mallorca’s fourth most used goalkeeper that season after Manolo Reina, Sergio Rico and Leo Román.

The following campaign wasn’t much of an improvement for Dominik Greif. He didn’t return to the matchday squad until the 9th of November 2022, and had to make do with a place on the bench once again. He now found himself understudy to Serbian goalkeeper Predrag Rajković, a summer signing from Stade de Reims for €4.5 million. Greif was limited to three more appearances in the Copa del Rey and a single outing in La Liga in the penultimate game of the season, a 3-0 defeat to Barcelona at the Camp Nou.

Epic Cup Run

Rajković was first choice again in the 2023-24 campaign under coach Javier Aguirre. For the third season running, Greif made just a solitary appearance in the league. This time he at least managed a clean sheet in a goalless draw against Valencia at the Mestalla. He was given his chance to shine in the Copa del Rey and he grabbed it with both hands, playing in seven of their eight fixtures on their run to the final and keeping four clean sheets.

Mallorca faced Real Sociedad over two legs in the semi-finals and the tie went all the way to penalties after a 1-1 draw on aggregate. Greif saved the first penalty in the shoot-out, from Mikel Oyarzabal, to give his team an instant advantage that they never relinquished. Former Lyon midfielder Sergi Darder tucked away the winning penalty to put Mallorca into the final.

They faced Athletic Club in the final at the La Cartuja stadium in Seville and took the lead early on only for Oihan Sancet to equalise just after half time. The match remained deadlocked through extra time and another shoot-out ensued. This time Greif couldn’t produce any saves and two of his team mates failed with their kicks, meaning that he had to settle for a runners-up medal.

Taking his chance

Happily for Dominik Greif, Predrag Rajković was sold to Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia for €11 million in summer 2024, meaning that the Slovak could finally inherit the number one jersey. He enjoyed a fine season as Mallorca’s first choice goalkeeper, making 31 appearances in La Liga and keeping seven clean sheets with 34 goals conceded as they finished 10th in the table under new coach Jagoba Arrasate.

Greif even received a long overdue recall to the Slovakia squad in November 2024 and won his fifth cap in a UEFA Nations League C match against Estonia. He kept a clean sheet in a 1-0 win at the Anton Malatinský Stadium. It brought to an end a wait of over four years since he picked up his fourth cap in October 2020.

Destination France

With only a year left on his Mallorca contract in summer 2025, it was time for Greif to make another decision about his future. That’s when Lyon came calling and he made the move to the Rhône. He left Mallorca with a paltry 46 appearances during his four seasons in the Balearics, but 15 of them resulted in clean sheets and he only had to pick the ball out of his net on 48 occasions.

Greif profited from an injury to Rémy Descamps to make his Lyon debut in the fifth game of the season and he started as he means to go on, with a clean sheet in a 1-0 win against Angers at the Groupama Stadium. He made a couple of impressive saves in injury time to secure the victory. He followed that up with another clean sheet away at Utrecht in the Europa League a few days later in another 1-0 win. Now aged 28 and approaching his peak years, he looks to have a bright future ahead of him if he can steer clear of the injuries and illnesses that have dogged him in recent seasons.

Lyon 1-0 Angers

Lyon manager Paulo Fonseca handed debuts to two new signings in his starting XI for the visit of Angers on matchday five of the Ligue 1 season. Slovak goalkeeper Dominik Greif, signed from Mallorca, came in to replace Rémy Descamps, who picked up an injury in the defeat at Rennes. Up front there was a debut for Uruguayan striker Martín Satriano, who joined on loan from Lens.

For the first time since March, Fonseca was allowed inside the Lyon dressing room before the match and during half time as that aspect of his lengthy ban has finally expired. However, he’s still not allowed on the touchline during matches for another couple of months, so once again he was forced to follow proceedings from the press tribune.

Lyon were strong favourites before the match and they proceeded to dominate possession during the first forty five minutes without managing to create any clear-cut chances. They did have the ball in the net in the 21st minute via a Tagliafico header, but it was ruled out for a handball by Niakhaté in the build-up. The only other action of note was a nasty late tackle on Fofana by Angers defender Carlens Arcus, who escaped with just a yellow card.

The home side continued to toil away after the interval and started to create shooting opportunities more regularly but the visiting defence continued to hold firm until the introduction of Czech international Pavel Šulc in the 65th minute. His first task was to deliver a corner from the left and it found the head of Satriano, who forced a good save from Angers goalkeeper Hervé Koffi, diving low to his left. Tanner Tessmann was first to react and he expertly guided the rebound just inside of the far post to open the scoring.

Satriano, who had been anonymous during the first half, came close again a few minutes after the goal when he hit the woodwork from a narrow angle on the right. The rebound fell just out of reach for Fofana, who almost had a tap-in to an open goal. The game really should have been done and dusted in the 79th minute when Maitland-Niles received the ball on the right of the six yard box with only Koffi to beat but he steered his shot agonisingly wide of the far post.

There was a third debutant for Lyon in the closing stages when academy product Mathys de Carvalho came off the bench to replace Tolisso in midfield. He was joined by another youngster, forward Enzo Molebe, making only his third appearance for the club. It was therefore a youthful and inexperienced Lyon team that was charged with seeing out the final few minutes to secure the three points.

The earlier misses meant that it was a more uncomfortable final few minutes than it needed to be for the home fans. Angers launched their inevitable late charge and came mightily close to finding an equaliser through Lanroy Machine in the fourth minute of stoppage time. The striker, who had only just come off the bench, saw his powerful effort tipped onto the post by Greif, and out for a corner.

That corner produced another major scare for Lyon right at the death when it fell to Ekomié at the far post. Greif, who had been a spectator for much of the game, pulled another smart save out of the bag to preserve his clean sheet and see Lyon move back to joint top of the Ligue 1 table ahead of the other matchday five fixtures over the weekend.

Rennes Robbery: Rennes 3-1 Lyon

Lyon lost their one hundred percent record in controversial fashion at Roazhon Park with a 3-1 defeat to Rennes. Playing without a centre forward for the second game running, Les Gones dominated the first half and took the lead in the 14th minute. Corentin Tolisso, playing as a false nine, rose highest in the box to head home a Karabec cross.

A couple of minutes later Rennes defender Anthony Rouault escaped unpunished for a horror tackle on Lyon midfielder Khalis Merah that many onlookers thought merited a straight red card. Bizarrely the VAR officials didn’t ask referee Ruddy Buquet to take another look at it.

Fortunately Merah avoided serious injury and was able to continue. He was presented with a golden opportunity to double the advantage shortly before half time when he got in behind the Rennes defence and ran half the length of the pitch for a one-on-one with Rennes goalkeeper Brice Samba. The France international came off his line to save the initial effort, pushing the ball wide to the right from where Merah followed up with a second shot that Samba recovered to save again.

With 60% of the first half possession and four shots on target to zero for Rennes it was clear that Lyon were well on top at the interval and it seemed like only a matter of time until they wrapped up the game. They had another huge chance to do so in the 62nd minute when Karabec beat his man to open up a glorious shooting opportunity. It looked easier to score, but he somehow put his effort wide of the post.

Lyon were still seemingly coasting towards victory and a fourth consecutive clean sheet with a quarter of an hour left to play when everything began to unravel very quickly. Tyler Morton decided to take one for the team by tripping Rennes substitute Mohamed Kader Meïté to nip a counter attack in the bud. To universal astonishment his tactical foul was punished with a red card rather than the standard yellow and Lyon were reduced to ten men.

Rennes capitalised on their numerical advantage almost immediately with a goal from Rouault after a scramble in the Lyon box following a corner. There was a long VAR check to examine an apparent offside and potential foul on the goalkeeper, but the goal was eventually awarded to the player who probably shouldn’t still have been on the pitch.

The Rennes tails were up and they threw everything into the chase for a winner, which duly came in the third minute of injury time. Meïté took a shot from an acute angle which deflected into the net off Lyon goalkeeper Rémy Descamps. To rub salt into the wound, Meïté scored again two minutes later with a header to make it an improbable 3-1 home win.