Ligue 1: In Lens, a “less bling bling” OL begins its Year 1 with a victory

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After nearly disappearing this summer, the historic Lyon club won on Saturday August 16th on the ground of RC Lens (1-0), on the bench of which its former coach Pierre Sage took his place.

Lyon striker Georges Mikautadze after scoring the only goal of the match against RC Lens, at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis in Lens, Saturday, August 16, 2025. (Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP)

by Grégory Schneider, special correspondent in Lens (Pas-de-Calais)

The evening ended on the pitch at the Bollaert-Delelis stadium with a coach lecturing beaten players, arranged in a circle. Motionless, huddled together, perfectly silent. Their coach could talk as much as he could, but they were certainly looking for answers they would never get: such and such a poorly handled game situation, and if I had done that... We turned up this Saturday, August 16, in Lens (Pas-de-Calais) to see the home team fall (0-1) against Olympique Lyonnais (OL) at the start of the 2025-2026 Ligue 1 season. And their brand new coach, Pierre Sage, closed one chapter of his professional life to open another.

Twenty months ago, the Jura native, then director of the OL training center, was appointed first team coach in the uproar of the mandate of John Textor, the now ex-president of the Rhone club , ousted in July by his debtors in order to save the Gones' place in the elite, which was under threat.