It is with a sound of the French rappers Gradur and Franglish that Jérôme Boateng made official, on September 2, his coming to OL on his social networks. Difficult to find a more improbable final touch to the most prestigious arrival that is this summer in Ligue 1, apart from PSG, it goes without saying. The Lyon supporters, who were ironic about the all-out savings operated by their club this summer, could not believe their eyes when the crazy rumor of the signing of one of the greatest defenders on the planet over the last ten years materialized at the end of the transfer window.
Let’s go @OL 🔥🔴🔵 pic.twitter.com/tDpbj637SS
– Jérôme Boateng (@JeromeBoateng) September 2, 2021
A question has since been revolving around: how OL, condemned to a second season in a row without qualifying in C1, was able to attract this German international to a record rivaling almost all French football (two Champions Leagues and one World Cup) ? One can even wonder if this is not the biggest blow of the Aulas era in Lyon, as no player has arrived with such a CV, even during the golden period of the seven consecutive titles in Ligue 1 in the 2000s. The house specialty was indeed to make Lyon the peak of the career of major players (Juninho, Cris, Coupet…) or the springboard (Essien, Abidal, Malouda…).
Boateng in the role of “guide”, like Sonny Anderson of old?
“The president has never been accustomed to huge expenses for big players, confirms Christophe Delmotte, Lyon player from 1997 to 2004. More than Giovane Elber [arrivé du Bayern en 2003], which was rather towards the end of his career when he came to us, the most significant arrival at OL remains for me Sonny Anderson [ex-OM, AS Monaco et Barça, en 1999], a great man in the field and in life. He immediately pulled us up, while fitting into the mold. He was really our guide in the field and he helped us collectively. It’s reassuring to have such a player by his side, and a Jérôme Boateng can also help. “
At the top of his game, there is no doubt. But at 33 and after four months without competition, what about? It is surprising to note that Sevilla is the only big European club to really have sought to recruit such a player, yet free to engage where he wishes since last January. The most plausible explanation? And if finally, the ex-captain for ten seasons at Bayern Munich (where he arrived at the end of his contract), was burnt?
“He was simply at the end of the cycle with Bayern”
“He lost speed compared to the player I saw land in Hamburg at 19, it’s a certainty, but no, he is not burned at all, says the former Ivorian central defender Guy Demel, still friends with Jérôme Boateng. He was simply at the end of his cycle with Bayern. He still feels the legs to continue at the high level and he wanted to discover another championship, so in my opinion it is a very good move achieved by OL. “And this especially if one relies on his 39 games played with the German monster last season, during which he rarely seemed out of date, despite a very high (and therefore risky) positioning on the field to which Hansi Flick held.
“It’s a slow fake and believe me, it’s very hard to dribble, thinks Mickaël Tavares, who was also his teammate in 2009-2010 in Hamburg. He has such a complete palette that he had played a few games as a defensive midfielder with us, as well as a full-back on both sides. Because what impressed me most was that he had both feet. “
“It was as if programmed to go all the way to the top”
A precious technical characteristic which pushes Guy Demel to predict an osmosis between the plans of Peter Bosz and the profile of his ex-partner (from 2007 to 2010): “Jérôme is really ambidextrous, I have always seen him string together 40 passes. m with the left foot without the slightest problem. It’s still a great strength for a team wanting to produce the game to have such a raiser behind ”. Dithyrambic about Jérôme Boateng, the former Ivorian international was in no way surprised by his change of dimension in 2011, at the end of a difficult season at Manchester City.
In Hamburg, we already felt that Jérôme was very strong mentally. He was even programmed to go all the way up. Today, with his impressive track record, he can bring his winning culture to Lyon. In terms of the media alone, it’s a very good thing for OL to recruit such a player. “
“I dare to hope that the Lyon leaders were informed”
This seemed to be obvious until September 9 and a trial for domestic violence against his ex-partner, the mother of his two 10-year-old twin daughters. If he denied the facts dating from 2018, he was found guilty by the Munich court of beatings and violence, and fined 1.8 million euros (he has just appealed) . OL have since ensured that they were not aware of this heavy legal procedure, for which their new player risked up to five years in prison.
“It wasn’t a secret, however,” explains Guy Demel. German newspapers often talked about this trial. There, the name of Jérôme Boateng clearly exceeds the framework of football and the media are watching all his actions. I dare to hope that the Lyon leaders were informed of this. “Despite the communication put forward by OL, a French agent preferring to remain anonymous does not doubt for a moment that Lyon was aware. According to him, this legal situation has also been able to “cool” the interest of clubs having considered recruiting the former Bavarian icon.
Reunion with Lionel Messi, Sunday at Parc des Princes
“All professional clubs now use a private investigator before signing a player,” said the agent. They say to themselves that it is better to drop 30,000 euros in an in-depth investigation than to take the slightest risk on the private life of a player arriving for an investment of several million euros. Before signing a contract abroad to one of my players this summer, a club even brought out in front of us three binders filled with all his messages posted on social networks and articles about him from a young age, all translated. They knew him better than he knew himself. I am therefore convinced that a clause had been provided under private signature between OL and Boateng to break the contract. [de 2 ans] in case of prison sentence for the player. “
This legal outcome not having taken place, Jérôme Boateng can continue his professional career in Lyon (he has accumulated 94 minutes of play in five days between the matches against Strasbourg and the Glasgow Rangers), and find Sunday (9 p.m.) Lionel Messi at the Parc des Princes. On May 6, 2015, a thunderous hook from the Argentine, in a semi-final first leg of the Champions League Barça-Bayern (3-0), had earned the German defender a whirlwind of
mockery and montages on social networks.
“Frankly, he smiles when you talk to him about this action which obviously went around the world,” says Guy Demel. It never disturbed him more than that because Jérôme is used to wiping the criticisms and analyzing them well. On the other hand, people do not seem to remember that he won other decisive C1 matches against Barça and Messi 4-0 and even 8-2. “A priori, we are safe from such an anthology slap in favor of OL on Sunday.