A possible big blow of air conditioning fell on Monday evening in Lyon. “I will retire at Real Madrid. There is no other option for me”, indeed confided Karim Benzema on Spanish radio Onda Cero, just after receiving his first Ballon d’Or at the Théâtre du Châtelet. The supporters of OL must therefore once and for all make up their minds: 13 years after his transfer to Real Madrid, the Brondillant will not return to complete the circle, barring a miracle. However, it would take much more to shower the wave of euphoria that invaded Lyon during this Ballon d’Or ceremony.
If the Lyon club remained rather sober on the individual consecration of the greatest player it has trained, with four messages shared on social networks and an emotional but discreet presence of Jean-Michel Aulas behind the hero Monday at Châtelet, supporters celebrated the distinction of the Madrid captain in an unexpected way. It all started with the account Lyon Memeswhich has 115,000 followers on Instagram.
“This ceremony should, in my opinion, be a highlight in Lyon, explains this 20-year-old communication student. So I wanted to bring together all the people of Lyon so that we can celebrate together. Ideally, it would have been necessary to organize all that upstream, but there I exchanged to the tear with the bar the Tank, Monday at 2 p.m. »
“As if OL had won the C1”
Eight hours later, thanks to the large community of this anonymous account and the fervor of Lyon’s youth, this bar in the 7th arrondissement was packed and boiling when Zinedine Zidane blew the name of Karim Benzema on the air. “We were more than 350 people on site, it was crazy, a real stadium atmosphere with people standing on the chairs from everywhere, confides Memes from Lyon, in a suit for the occasion, and who usually prefers to stay mask. We celebrated that as if OL had won the Champions League, it was even better. Euuuuuh, “limit better” than a C1 so?!?!?
This is where criticism of a possible “FC Proxy”, a bit like the hundreds of Marseille supporters who celebrated on the Old Port the 2020 European final lost by PSG against Bayern Munich (0-1). How could the Lyonnais get so carried away for an individual award received by a talent who left OL at the age of 21, in 2009? And this while the club of Jean-Michel Aulas remains stuck in 10th place in Ligue 1, with an ongoing series of 5 wins and 1 draw, and a coach sacked eight days earlier… Manager of the Tank, bar ambassador of the Lyon club in full news Monday evening, Daniel Gutierrez has an explanation.
It is perhaps precisely because the OL team no longer brings much satisfaction to its supporters that there was such a festive atmosphere yesterday. All these young people present, who were between 17 and 30 years old, did not have the best years of OL, so I understand that this Ballon d’Or could have pushed them to celebrate it like a collective title. . »
Bron-Terraillon also crazy
For Estelle, a 25-year-old supporter who collaborates with the site of Trade Cafe, the reason does not hold in this decade without the slightest trophy: “Karim Benzema has never forgotten OL. Even in his Ballon d’Or speech, he recalled that he was living his dream today also thanks to Lyon. I obviously don’t consider that OL have won a trophy, and that doesn’t make us forget our poor ranking. It just proves that we know how to train players who then shine on the world stage. And the Lyonnais are extremely attached to the training center.
Responsible for recruiting young people at OL from 2002 to 2018, Gerard Bonneau is well placed to raise this question: “In Lyon, we are proud to have a Ballon d’Or, the first Frenchman since 1998. He is from the OL academy, he comes from a neighborhood, he is representative of these young people who like to kick the ball. It therefore makes the Lyonnais proud, as the Marseillais were proud of Zidane’s Ballon d’Or. Another intense scene of popular jubilation, Monday evening in his first club SC Bron-Terraillonproved this indisputable link between KB9 and Lyon, just like the France-Finland match showed it in September 2021 at Parc OL.
“A guy in our family”
“Ah, we are such a proud people in Lyon! And even if he is in Madrid, Karim still gives us a lot of strength in his messages, whether for OL or for Lyon rappers for example, ”continues Memes from Lyon, who was only 7 years old when Benzema flew to Madrid. The mysterious student from Lyon even prompted, late Monday evening, an extension of the festivities in the Presqu’île with around 200 supporters. On the menu songs, firecrackers, smoke bombs and the classic “6-9 la trik” yelled like a chorus, from rue Mercière to the Hôtel de Ville. To end a crazy evening.
“I think it’s beyond us all a bit,” sums up Estelle. It’s still this principle of OL’s DNA, and Benzema is the child of our city. His coronation gives hope to so many kids. It feels like he’s a guy in our family who has just won, and even that we all won the Ballon d’Or tonight. Definitely “the people’s Golden Ball” in Lyon.