Lyon are an institution in French football: eight league titles, five French Cups, two Champions League semi-finals. Based in the country's second-most populous city, Lyon are now chasing the arch-enemy of an entire league: Paris Saint-Germain.
The new giants and their petrodollars have been racing ahead on their own since their Qatari takeover in 2011. "An illegal model," retorts Textor, the American businessman who succeeded Jean-Michel Aulas at the helm of OL.
Textor, who was recently called a "cowboy" by Nasser Al-Khelaifi, wanted to turn the tables with his model of multiple club ownership - and his way of standing up to the authorities, including the PSG president. With a single aim behind it all: to turn Lyon back into a Champions League club, as they were in the golden years between 2000 and 2010.
Competitor for second place
"I want to win the Champions League," Textor proclaimed on his arrival in 2020, before assuring it a few months later that it would be a "failure" if Lyon did not one day win Ligue 1. These were lofty ambitions of a beginner before he scaled back his ambitions two years later as he embarked on his third season as the club's owner.
"Today, this club, the great Lyon, can only aspire to be second place," he said in July of last year in an interview with Globo Esporte. "We're going to give it our best shot, and I hope we kick their (backsides) and that they have a bad year. But all they have to do is put their hand in their pocket, drop a bit of oil money and that's the end of it."
Since then, Textor has stepped up to the plate. First to the DNCG (the committee responsible for monitoring the financial situations of French clubs), which has sanctioned him during every market window - firstly by imposing a limit on the wage bill and transfer fees, before going so far as to relegate him to Ligue 2 as a precautionary measure due to financial debts deemed too high. "The decision is unfounded, because they don't understand the timeshare model," he said in an interview with AS.
In France, the arrival of the American and his Eagle Football Group, which also owns Crystal Palace, Botafogo and Molenbeek, caused many club presidents to cringe, including Pablo Longoria, president of Marseille.
It's free loans between clubs it owns, at a time when Lyon are under financial sanctions, and its financial arrangements to enable one club to repay the debt of another - in a French league that is bled dry with TV rights sold at knocked-down prices - are all tricks that irritate people.
An institutional battle with PSG
Yet, Textor is convinced his model is the only one that can compete with the omnipotent PSG. "The only way to compete with unlimited money is for clubs all over the world to work together, identifying players from all over the world.
"Finding 11 players who are better than PSG's, through scouting, could allow us to compete with them," he believes.
"But if I have a group of league presidents who make a point of insulting and attacking the multiple (club) ownership model, while protecting the unlimited money of PSG, then nobody is going to compete (with PSG) for the Ligue 1 title."
Textor strikes back. Having been the victim of the system put in place in the French league when he arrived, the businessman is now embarking on a crusade against the PSG model - which he denounces as "illegal" and "violating European legislation".
"The PSG financing model is illegal; our (multi-club ownership) model is perfectly legal and sanctioned." He explains it simply: "It is not illegal for a foreign player, or a foreign state, to subsidise a company in the European Union if it distorts competition."
Textor's fight against PSG on an institutional level also includes his determination not to sell his best players to the great rival, even though Rayan Cherki has been mentioned several times in connection with PSG in the last three transfer windows. Is the aim to remain competitive?
While the Lyon chief's recent rise to prominence has been largely due to his incentives against the French football establishment, he is also the man behind the sacking of Pierre Sage in favour of Paulo Fonseca - with the clear objective to at least secure Champions League qualification.
Playing in the Champions League
Sage had gone from being a man of miracles in the 2023/24 season to a man of miracles in the middle of the 2024/25 season. With eight wins, six draws, five defeats and sixth place in Ligue 1, the balance sheet did not show a catastrophic end to January for Lyon and the French coach, but Textor felt obliged to make a strong choice. "My job is not to be led too much by emotions. Halfway through the season, we're not in the top four and to get there we have to beat the best teams in the top four."
It's a Cartesian observation by the American businessman, who told CANAL+: "My aim is to maximise the likelihood of playing in the Champions League. A lot of supporters think that Pierre would have succeeded, and that may be true, but my job is to increase the probability - whether it's popular or not."
This context, combined with the law of timing and the possibility of bringing in Fonseca, led to the sacking of a coach who had "accomplished something of a miracle" a year earlier.
"If Pierre had achieved the results he had hoped for, he would still be Lyon's coach," said Textor. "But there is also a notion of timing, which, in this case, smiled on us. I had to make a decision.
"I asked my staff if I should change the coach, and they said 'no, that would be madness, it's too risky'. Then, I asked them if it was possible to reach the Champions League with this coach... they said 'no', (and) I asked if they wanted to give up on our Champions League ambitions this season, and they said 'of course not'... I asked again if we should change coach, and they all said 'yes'."
Fonseca - 'the right person' for Lyon
The image will have travelled around Europe and will continue to be talked about for some time to come. Suspended by the disciplinary committee until November 30th for his outburst against referee Benoit Millot during Lyon v Brest, Fonseca received some heavyweight support on Thursday, March 6th, for his 52nd birthday. "Happy birthday Paulo! I am with you today and always. You made a mistake... your apology was sincere and your punishment is clearly too harsh. You're the right person for Lyon and we're going to persevere," read a message posted on Instagram by Textor.
It was enough to quell the rumours and send a message to the more sceptical, who were already calling for the Portuguese coach to be sacked. But, no, Fonseca is not about to leave... in fact, as soon as the penalty decision was announced, Lyon said they had "taken note of the extreme severity of the penalty, which is unprecedented and unusually swift," and that their "coach was not judged solely on his actions, an emotional reaction with no clear intention of physically attacking the referee". In the end, it was just another episode for the Rhone club, who are used to clashes with the authorities and other clubs in the French league.
For the coach himself, there is no reason to put his future into question, and he insisted to CANAL+ on Thursday, on the sidelines of the match against Steaua Bucharest, that he is "ready to continue working despite this long suspension" and wants to "find solutions together and organise the team in the best possible way to prepare for matches". Lyon got off to a brilliant start in Romania, winning the first leg of their tie 3-1, before refocusing on Ligue 1 and their goal of reaching the Champions League.
Four points off fourth place, Lyon are both close to and far from achieving their objective - not least because of an unfavourable fixture list. At Nice this Sunday, Lyon are far from favourites - and then they have to contend with Strasbourg, Lille, Auxerre, Rennes, Lens and Monaco.
Lyon's future is once again in the hands of a miracle, while a statistic obtained under Fonseca has brought back a buried memory. The 10 goals scored in the Portuguese's first three matches equalled a 22-year-old record: only Paul Le Guen's team, in the 2002/03 season, had scored 10 goals in their new coach's first three matches.
All the more reason to hope that the beautiful game and its goals will make Lyon great again.