FC Lyon

Lyon, Lyon · France · Ligue 1

Against expectation

Every French top-flight match this club has played in the Ligue 1, scored against the odds an Elo rating gave it before kick-off. Over 67 seasons from 1945-46 to 2024-25 it has beaten them by +35.7 match points.

1945-46 to 2024-25one bar per season · height in match points

Best season against expectation
1994-95 +14.4 league pts
69 points on 54.6 expected as Olympique Lyon
Worst season against expectation
1951-52 −10.9 league pts
20 points on 30.9 expected as Olympique Lyon

Season points use that season’s own scoring, two for a win before 1994-95 and three from it; the bars use match points so the whole series is comparable. The rating only starts telling you much after about 1960. Before that, knowing the era’s home-and-away split is almost as good as knowing the teams.

1994-95 results not final: results supplied from football-data.co.uk 1994-95 all-Europe archive (sheet F1), compiled by Joe Buchdahl; supplied by Ashwin 2026-09-05.2019-20 table not final: abandoned at the COVID-19 shutdown, 279 of 380 played.

Lyon against expectation →How this is measured →

Title chances

This side's chance in each title race we forecast, frozen and scored like every forecast here.

Season simulation · 2 Nov 2026

Who will win the Europa League?

3%FC Lyon's chance

From 20,000 simulated seasons, updated weekly. The frozen, scored forecast names the leading sides only.

The title raceTrack record

Full odds: Europa League · every title race

What the squad was worth

Total market value of the squad, EUR millions, by month; the player count beside it is the size of the priced squad.

How this is measured

Drawn as a step, not a curve: Transfermarkt reprices every squad in December and June (marked with a small tick on the axis) and revalues continuously between, so the line only moves when a real valuation changed, never by interpolation.

A month renders no value at all once the priced squad falls below 15 players, so a thin squad is never shown as a cheap one. The series is floored at July 2012 on purpose: earlier Transfermarkt totals reflect which players happened to be priced yet rather than the squad’s real worth, and are excluded rather than shown misleadingly low.

Upstream (dcaribou/transfermarkt-datasets) has been paused since July 2026, so the series ends where the source ends rather than where the season does.

Player valuations from Transfermarkt via github.com/dcaribou/transfermarkt-datasets (CC0).

What the squad was worth€299m
024649112-1314-1516-1718-1920-2122-2324-25

Peak
€455m in Sep 2019 · 30 players valued
Most recent
€299m in Jun 2026 · 29 players valued

Lyon on the rankings →

The money ledger

Fees paid and received each season, and what the squad was worth once the trading is netted out.

How this is measured

Spent is the fees paid for players arriving, received the fees for players leaving, both in EUR millions by the July-to-June season of the move. A move with no fee on record (a free, a loan, an undisclosed sum) is counted, never priced: the small figure beside each total is the moves with a fee, plus those without (so 4+3 is four priced arrivals and three unpriced), and a quiet window is not mistaken for a cheap one. Wages are not here: they are estimates nobody licenses, and fees are documented.

Appreciation is the season’s change in squad value with the net spend taken out: buy 100m of players and finish 100m higher is zero; finish 120m higher and the club made 20m of players better, or the market repriced them. It needs a priced squad at both ends of the season (the same 15-player floor as the value chart), so it is blank rather than guessed for a season that lacks one.

The source has been paused since 6 July 2026, so the final row holds only the opening days of its window.

Transfer fees and player valuations from Transfermarkt via github.com/dcaribou/transfermarkt-datasets (CC0).

The money ledger+€346m
Spent
€590m
65 arrivals with a fee
Received
€935m
71 departures with a fee
Net
+€346m
255 moves with no fee
Appreciation
+€459m
14 seasons with a priced squad

Grown or bought: in 2026-27, trading +€2m and appreciation —. Over the last 5 seasons (2022-23–2026-27), trading +€73m and appreciation unpriced.

The director’s ledger: 103 arrivals graded since 2022-23, 82% EV-positive. €288m deployed for a 1.2× multiplier.

2026-27 spent €4m received €7mto 6 July 2026
in: Noham Kamara €4m
—
unpriced
2025-26 spent €48m received €74m
in: Tyler Morton €10m
+€82m
squad gain
2024-25 spent €144m received €99m
in: Moussa Niakhaté €32m
−€56m
squad gain
2023-24 spent €59m received €105m
in: Malick Fofana €20m
+€27m
squad gain
2022-23 spent €32m received €75m
in: Amin Sarr €11m
−€36m
squad gain
2021-22 spent €21m received €96m
in: Romain Faivre €15m
+€71m
squad gain
2020-21 spent €25m received €47m
in: Lucas Paquetá €23m
−€26m
squad gain
2019-20 spent €122m received €160m
in: Jeff Reine-Adélaïde €25m
−€24m
squad gain

Money against football

Every priced club-season in the six leagues: points against expectation across, squad value gained beyond the net spend up. This club’s seasons are joined.

● the frontier: no other club-season beat it on both axes · ● this club, season by season, the largest dot the latest

Every club’s return on the transfer window →

Greatest games

FC Lyon's top matches by the club Game Score: closeness, stakes, quality and upset over one unified rating of league and European play. H, A and N mark home, away and a neutral venue; a ★ is a curated all-time classic (tap it for the model's own score).All-time board.

1
Olympique de Pantin
1918-05-05 · Coupe de France · Final
35.7
game score

Footprint

Tiers played
L1
Top-flight (L1) seasons
0
First season
1905
Most recent season
1914
Season-by-season

Most recent season first. Covers Ligue 1 only. Rows tagged "national playoff" are pre-modern formats where the workbook records only playoff participants, not round-robin standings.

1914
Championnat de France (1)
national playoff · knockout format, no match data
1912
Championnat de France (1)
national playoff · knockout format, no match data
1909
Championnat de France (1)
national playoff · knockout format, no match data
1908
Championnat de France (1)
national playoff · knockout format, no match data
1905
Championnat de France (1)
national playoff · knockout format, no match data
Domestic Cup Finals

Most recent first. Every domestic cup final the club has played, including losses. Scheduled finals (date not yet passed) are flagged.

1918
Coupe de France
Runner-up