While the president of Olympique Lyonnais Jean-Michel Aulas assesses, with the cessation of the French championship, the losses of French professional football at 900 million euros, his adviser Gérard Houllier wants to be more optimistic. If he concedes that it will take "at least two years to get up", the former coach of the France team says on Europe 1 that "French football will be the one that will perhaps recover the best thanks to the training of young people, thanks to their qualities and their young talents ".
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Houllier: "we will get there"
The former coach of Paris Saint-Germain, champion of France in 1986, develops his arguments: "The Japanese are used to saying: 'The crisis is an opportunity'. There is no more money , or very little. There are recipes that have not arrived, the clubs will be a little more destitute, and they will turn to the training centers, which they sometimes use a little too timidly or hastily. But you see, it will be thanks to the quality of the players, which is exceptional, that we will emerge victorious from this crisis which is a challenge, a challenge. But I think that we will get there. "
While France is the second player exporting country in the world behind Brazil, and the economy of most clubs is based on trading , namely the development of a young talent to then sell it with more- Considered consequent, Gérard Houllier thinks that "at first, they will play in the clubs to which they belong, then the clubs which will need resources, they will sell them when they are 22-23 years old."
If we take the example of Olympique Lyonnais, the Rhone club has become a master in the matter, with the recent sales for example of Ferland Mendy to Real Madrid (48 million euros, excluding bonus) or Tanguy Ndombélé to Tottenham (62 million euros). It remains to be seen whether there will not be a "covid-19 price" this summer on the transfer market…