DECRYPTION – The takeover of Olympique Lyonnais by the American fund Eagle Football Holding LLC completes an unprecedented series of investments.
It’s not just the extension of Kylian Mbappé’s contract at Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) that is driving the football summer. This is also moving at club level. On Monday evening, Olympique Lyonnais (OL) announced that it had entered into exclusive negotiations with Eagle Football Holding LLC, the investment fund of American businessman John Textor. He is preparing to put nearly 800 million euros on the table, to buy the shares of both Pathé, IDG Capital (40% between them) and gradually Holnest – the family holding of the president of the OL, Jean-Michel Aulas. At the beginning of spring, the announcement of the first two to want to withdraw from the Rhone club had opened the door to a change of owner.
Read also“Winning the Champions League and competing with PSG”: What to remember from Aulas and Textor’s press conference on the sale of OL
The operation comes at a time when French football has never aroused so much appetite on the part of foreign investors: at the same time, Saint-Étienne and Le Havre, two other historic clubs, are actively discussing with American interlocutors. These last…