Lyon (AFP)

"It's perfect to learn over four or five years": Tony Parker confirmed, on Friday on OLTV, that he could one day succeed Jean-Michel Aulas at the head of Olympique Lyonnais, as the interested party l 'had recently suggested in the press.

The ex-basketball star is due to join the board of directors of OL Groupe, the holding company which heads the club run by Mr. Aulas (71) since June 1987.

The announcement was made in early February and since then JMA has gone further, imagining handing over to Parker.

"I have a great affection for him and all that he represents. If the day I want to pass the hand, it can be done with a form of professional transmission, but also emotional, it can be great", had- he told L'Equipe in early April.

"I say it out of transparency and because it seems obvious to me. I don't say it because I have an idea in my head and I have discussed it with Tony. There is no decision to make or his side, neither mine, nor on the side of our shareholders, "he added, adding that he intended to leave around his 75th birthday, that is to say in four or five years.

"This is what it takes to learn well because presiding over OL Groupe is not just about choosing the coach and the players. It is much more robust than that," said Parker, 37, on the channel. of the club, before evoking its current role.

"Jean-Michel Aulas is someone I greatly respect and what he has done is unique. I just want the OL brand, which is not too famous in the USA, to be recognized internationally as a Barça or Real Madrid. I'm going to give a lot of interviews to publicize Olympique Lyonnais, "said the OL ambassador abroad.

"We started with the takeover this winter of the American women's football club from Reign FC in Tacoma (Washington State), which became OL Reign. It was one of my first two missions with the takeover of a club in China ", continued the president of the basketball club of Asvel Lyon-Villeurbanne (Élite), in which OL Groupe has owned almost a third of the capital since December.

And to evoke other projects still like that "to invest in an NBA club".

"We can consider a lot of things. With Jean-Michel, we have a lot of ambitions. It's not just football and basketball. We started out in e-sport and tennis is going to happen" , he concluded.

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