Lyon (AFP)
Former Bayern Munich defender Jérôme Boateng signed at Olympique Lyonnais for two seasons on Wednesday, the Rhone club announced in a statement.
The 2014 world champion, who will be 33 years old on Friday, was free since the end of his contract in Munich at the end of June, and has just signed up with OL until 2023.
"Olympique Lyonnais is delighted with the arrival of Jérôme Boateng, 5th German player in the club's history and 5th recruit in this summer transfer window which perfectly meets the recruitment strategy that OL and Peter Bosz had set for themselves ", writes the club of Jean-Michel Aulas.
OL's new central defender delivered a full 2020-2021 season by participating in 39 matches with Bayern, after several exercises punctuated by injuries that regularly took him away from the field.
"I am very excited, this is my first time here in Lyon, I received a warm welcome. I can't wait to meet my teammates and the whole club, to see the stadium and to meet the supporters", Boateng said in a video posted Wednesday by OL on its social networks.
The 1.90m central defender, centerpiece of the Mannschaft world champion in 2014 and pillar of Bayern Munich since 2011, with whom he conquered nine Bundesligas and two Champions Leagues (2013 and 2020), reinforces a defensive sector Lyon struggling, with 7 goals conceded in 4 Ligue 1 matches.
Left free by the Bavarian club after the recruitment of French Dayot Upamecano in the defense axis, Boateng remained free of any contract during the summer before arriving in Lyon on Tuesday.
He signed his contract on Wednesday, after the end of the transfer window but before the deadline for registering players in the European Cup, which should allow him to be qualified to play in the Europa League in which the Lyonnais participate.
Alongside Swiss international Xherdan Shaqiri, who arrived in Lyon at the end of August, he will be the new leader of the Lyon sports project led by Dutch coach Peter Bosz, orphan of striker Memphis Depay who left for Barcelona this summer.
Until now, Lyon had only counted in central defense on Belgian international Jason Denayer, barely recovered from Covid-19, veteran Damien Da Silva (33), who arrived free from Rennes and excluded Friday in Nantes (1-0 ), as well as two young people from the training center, Castello Lukeba and Sinaly Diomandé.
Brazilian Marcelo Guedes (34) was dismissed from the squad in August for inappropriate behavior.
Jérôme Boateng is preparing to discover his 5th club after passing through Herta Berlin where he was trained, Hamburg (2007-2010) then Manchester City (2010-2011) and Bayern (363 matches, 10 goals).
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