Lyon are one of the proudest clubs in European football with a rich history, and in the 2010s, they transitioned from being a dominant force to a quality side that focused on producing top young talents as a result of PSG’s monopoly over Ligue 1 following the Qatar takeover.
The 2010s were marked by stars of the last decade and new, exciting stars paving the way for the next era of Lyon football. Here are the 10 best Lyon players of the decade.
ST Lisandro Lopez
Argentinian striker Lisandro Lopez was the main man who took over from Karim Benzema, and he scored 15 goals in the 2009/10 season before notching 44 goals in the three seasons to start the 2010s decade.
It’s not a stretch to call Lopez one of the two best Lyon strikers of the 2010s, and the only better striker is quite literally one of the best Lyon players of all time. Lopez will go down in history as underrated, but those who watched Ligue 1 in the beginning of the 2010s know that he was one of the top strikers in Europe.
CB Cris
Brazilian center backs don’t get the praise they deserve because they are so often overshadowed by their brilliant attacking teammates for country, and, in Cris’s case, the Lyon star was doubly overshadowed in his own country by Inter Milan legend Lucio.
But Cris was as dominant in France as Lucio was in Germany and Italy. He was one of the best defenders of the 2000s and honored as such by Ligue 1 observers during the decade, making the Ligue 1 Team of the Year in three consecutive seasons.
Although Cris left Lyon in 2012, because his brilliance bled into the 2010s, he has to make this list. Even as he was getting older, Cris was still nigh unbeatable in one-on-ones with the veteran savvy to embarrass even Ligue 1’s most skilled athletes.
LW Michel Bastos
Michel Bastos was a baller. The Brazilian winger was one of the most explosive dribblers in European football during his best days at Lyon, and he looked like someone who could win Ligue 1 Player of the Season when his career at the club first began.
Although Bastos’s Lyon career eventually fizzled out and ended in a move to the UAE, he was a Ligue 1 Team of the Year player in 2008/09 and had a couple of good seasons to start the 2010s decade before a doomed loan move to Schalke.
DM Maxime Gonalons
Most people these days have probably never heard of Maxime Gonalons, but he was a standout anchoring player for Lyon in the 2010s and one of the most underrated players in French football, largely by virtue of the unsung role he played.
Gonalons won the 2011/12 Coupe de France and was an excellent ball-winner and shielding presence defensively. In three different European campaigns, Gonalons managed to average more than five tackles per match
CB Samuel Umtiti
Samuel Umtiti is known as a “What if?” because of how the back half of his career played out after a transfer to Barcelona and devastating injury luck, but while at Lyon, he more than earned his big move to the, at the time, best club in the world.
The Frenchman was a titanic presence at the back, blessed with all the physical and technical skills of a world-beater at center back. He looked like the perfect modern defender with his reading of the game, speed, passing ability, and strength.
Umtiti looked like a star from the moment he got his first starts in the 2011/12 season, and by the time he left Lyon, he was a legitimately world-class central defender.
CM Clement Grenier
Clement Grenier was supposed to be the next big thing in French football, and while he never lived up to his billing as the next Kaka or even being the new face of the franchise after Karim Benzema left for Real Madrid – who, by the way, also really wanted to sign Grenier – he actually had a pretty good career at Lyon, all things considered.
See, that’s the worst part about young players getting hyped. Even if they end up having a good, long professional career, which is the main sign of success for a youth player, the perception of said footballer will always be that they were a bust because of the initial expectations.
Capable of playing as a traditional center midfielder or a No. 10 supporting the striker, Grenier overcame a few bad injuries to be a regular fixture in the side for Lyon throughout the 2010s.
A Coupe de France winner in 2011/12, Grenier could produce pure moments of genius at his best. He was one of the top players in Ligue 1 in the beginning of the decade before a hernia injury that wasn’t operated quickly enough effectively ruined his trajectory to true stardom.
ST Alexandre Lacazette
While Alexandre Lacazette has been tremendous in his second stint at the club, the French international’s first stint in the 2010s was truly something to behold and ended in a big-money transfer to Arsenal as one of their new stars to lead that era in North London.
Lacazette wrote a new era for Lyon in the post-Karim Benzema world, and he had nearly as profound of an impact as the iconic Real Madrid superstar. Blessed with outrageous speed and capable of scoring for fun, Lacazette exceeded 20 league goals in each of his final three seasons at the club.
It took a little bit for Laca to get going, but he gradually developed into a world-class striker and arguably the best player in Ligue 1, competing with the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic at PSG. He was a ridiculous player, just unfair for any defender to try and guard.
CM Corentin Tolisso
Corentin Tolisso was so good for Lyon that he ended up being their record-breaking 41.5 million euro transfer in 2017. Before moving to Bavaria, where his career would be derailed due to injuries, he was one of the most technically brilliant young players in world football at Lyon.
The young man’s goals from range were already a thing of legend of the time. Tolisso was an intelligent player beyond his years with a golden first touch, a rocket of a shot, and the ability to dance magic around defenders while scarcely missing a pass.
Tolisso even developed into an effective playmaker and defensive presence in midfield. He should have become one of the best all-around midfielders in the world, but injuries had a different plan.
But like Lacazette, Tolisso went back to his roots in the 2020s and has managed to be come a very good player in a totally different role as a veteran midfielder for this 2024/25 Lyon side.
AM Nabil Fekir
In an alternate universe, Nabil Fekir ends up at Liverpool as the heir to Philippe Coutinho and the Reds end up winning more than just the one Premier League title in 2019/20.
Fekir became an icon of Real Betis and LaLiga, one of the most dangerous players on earth – and one of the most underrated. But he was built in France by Lyon and was just as electrifying there as he was in Spain.
A creative genius, Fekir made the game look easy and was appointment television at Lyon. He was one of the best playmakers on the planet as both a passer and dribbler, putting defenders on strings before unleashing the perfect through ball.
Fekir had one Ligue 1 season with 13 goals and 9 assists and another with a whopping 18 goals and 8 assists as an attacking midfielder, putting up 2 key passes and a jaw-dropping 6.5 combined dribbles completed and fouls drawn per game in that campaign with 18 goals. Yeah, he was insane.
LW Memphis Depay
The crazy thing is that Lyon had Memphis Depay on some of those same teams with Nabil Fekir, and well, the presence of the World Cup breakout star for the Netherlands is probably why Fekir was so overlooked.
Memphis is one of the biggest talents of his generation from a skills perspective. What he could do with the football was simply absurd, and as much as his one-track mind made it impossible for him to thrive at bigger clubs like Manchester United and Barcelona, being a superstar for Lyon is still a massive deal – and Memphis was a fantastic top star for them.
He had 20 goals and 12 assists in his best season for Lyon in 2020/21 before making his move to Barcelona. Memphis had another season with 19 goals and 13 assists with another 10 and 10 season sandwiched in between.
You simply couldn’t stop him. Memphis was too strong, far too fast, and maybe the most explosive athlete in football. He should have never left Lyon, to be honest, and it’s a shame more people didn’t appreciate what he was doing in Ligue 1 from 2016 to 2021. Memphis was a human highlight reel.
Joe Soriano covers West Ham for Green Street Hammers and writes about Real Madrid for The Real Champs. He has extensive experience covering world football since 2014. Joe is an editor for The Trivela Effect, where he covers the biggest clubs in European football. He has watched professional sports regularly since 2002 and can be found playing the same sports he covers with his friends.