The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Lille OSC in the French championship: the club that can spoil the season in Paris

2021-05-09T02:48:16.156Z


A truffle pig, a successful coach and a Turkish oldie: OSC Lille is three games ahead of a sensational football championship. How does the small club manage against Qatar's billion dollar project?


Enlarge image

Lille OSC: Currently one point ahead of Paris Saint-Germain

Photo: Federico Pestellini / imago images / PanoramiC

When Burak Yilmaz arrived in Lille last summer, he bought an ice cream and strolled through the Grand Place of the northern French city.

The Turkish international striker was prepared for anything.

After all, in his home country he can hardly take a step outside the door.

"Kral" they call him there, King.

When he first came into contact with the new ambience, he was all the more surprised: Nobody recognized him.

Three quarters of a year later that has changed fundamentally.

The already 35-year-old Yilmaz is the most prominent face of a veritable football fairy tale, because thanks to his goals, the Lille Olympique Sporting Club leads the French league;

one point ahead of the sheik's club Paris St. Germain, which budgeted a good four times as much.

In the evening at 9 p.m., the most difficult remaining date will be in the “Derby du Nord” at the RC Lens, which is located 30 kilometers to the south-west.

This is followed by two opponents from the lower midfield: Saint-Étienne and Angers.

For Lille it would be the fourth championship after 1946, 1954 and 2011 - and the climax of a renaissance with obstacles.

In March 2018, dramatic scenes had taken place in the Pierre-Mauroy stadium.

Lille was in a relegation battle.

At the end of the league game against Montpellier, home fans stormed the pitch and attacked their own players.

As human shields, stewards pocketed the blows, and coach Christophe Galtier appalled a parallel to the Heysel tragedy of 1985: »What are we waiting for?

That a disaster will happen? "

Enlarge image

Striker Burak Yilmaz

Photo: DENIS CHARLET / AFP

Even with success, things are not without turbulence.

In December there was a dubious change of ownership: Under pressure from the league's financial supervisory authority, but also from his lenders Elliott (a hedge fund that currently also owns AC Milan) and JP Morgan (the superleague bank that was prevented), owner Gérard López (formerly Lotus team boss) in Formula 1) sell the club.

The owner is now a fund called Merlyn Partners, about whom little is known, except that, like López, it resides in the tax haven of Luxembourg.

The local business in Lille is headed by President Olivier Létang, a tried and tested official at PSG and Rennes.

The economic situation is still considered to be tense.

That can be surprising when you consider that Lille has generated the largest transfer surplus in the five major leagues in the past five years: 191 million euros according to the Fifa-related study group CIES.

The attackers Nicolas Pépé - bought in 2017 for ten million from Angers, sold in 2019 for 80 million to Arsenal - and Victor Oshimen - 22 million to Charleroi in 2019, 70 million from Naples in 2020 - serve as top-class examples of the successful definition as a training association under López, general manager Marc Ingla (ex-Barcelona) and sports director Luis Campos, who is revered as a truffle pig in the scene.

The surprisingly good role of the »kraal«

Now the triumvirate is gone - and leaves more goldmines in the potential championship team such as central defender Sven Botman, 21, or the three Jonathans in attack: David, 21, Bamba, 25 and Ikoné, 23. This also fits into the prevailing youth profile after his failure Bayern Munich re-nurtured midfield jewel Renato Sanches, still only 23 years old.

Occasionally »Les Dogues« - the mastiffs - but also counter-cultural with routine: The captain and head of defense is the 37-year-old European champion José Fonte and the most original newcomer was Yilmaz.

Campos is said to have been digging in Istanbul for a week and a half before the "kraal" embarked on another adventure abroad in his old days.

Given his age, there was skepticism, and originally he wasn't even really intended for the starting eleven.

But although he missed two months injured, the oldie with thirteen league goals is the top scorer of a team with a strong Turkish touch: he, midfielder Yusuf Yazici, 24, and right-back Zeki Çelik, 24, are the shooters or passers on around half of their 59 goals involved.

The strong, variable Yilmaz - in between also a three-time goalscorer against the Netherlands in the World Cup qualification - made his biggest appearance last week in the top game at Olympique Lyon, when he almost single-handedly scored two goals - a free kick, a counter-finish - and an assist 0: 2 caught up.

Lyon were thus distant and defended the top of the table, which they had taken over 1-0 in Paris at the beginning of April.

Enlarge image

Trainer Christophe Galtier

Photo: Buzzi / imago images

Lille's unbeaten record against the trio of Paris, Lyon and Monaco (three wins, three draws) has made the difference so far - PSG won only one of the six most important matches and lost four.

In the 1-0 direct encounter, Lille gave the capitals hardly any clear scoring chances and repeatedly countered skillfully.

Solidarity and speed are the strengths of the team built by Galtier.

Since the ex-defender took over from Marcelo Bielsa, who had failed after a few months, in December 2017, he has led Lille from the lowest point of the riot to relegation and then to places two and four.

Now Lyon and the Ineos club Nice are said to have had a sharp look at him.

Galtier's contract runs for another year, but his future is in doubt.

Like many players.

Like almost everything at Lille OSC.

For now, however, there is a championship to be won, and the derby is coming up.

Like Dortmund against Schalke, Lens would do nothing better than screw up the title of the local rival: This is what Lens professional Gaël Kakuta has publicly announced, since then the bits of words have been flying back and forth.

"He could have kept that to himself," replied Yilmaz, who knows: "For us it's about much more than a derby."

Source: spiegel

All sports articles on 2021-05-09

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.