Paulo Fonseca has left Lyon for Sporting CP, with Olympique Lyonnais making the departure official on Wednesday morning. Fonseca posted his farewell message on social media after the move was confirmed, and the club said the switch came in the middle of the season. Sporting will pay Lyon €5 million in compensation.
Fonseca's farewell
Fonseca's own message was warm and emotional. Speaking through Foot Mercato, he said Lyon became a home, thanked the club's supporters and staff, and added that football had given him the chance to fulfil a dream he had carried since childhood. “I leave with immense gratitude and memories that I will keep for my whole life. Thank you, Lyon. For everything. Allez l'OL,” he wrote.
The timing is the part Lyon kept coming back to. The club said he had been approached in recent days by a club he is particularly attached to and called the move unexpected, while Matthieu Louis-Jean said: “We could not continue the season with a coach who no longer wanted to be here.”
Lyon's immediate response
Lyon are not treating this as a collapse in form or direction. They sit 3rd in Ligue 1 with 17 points from 9 matches and a +8 goal difference, while their last five matches across Ligue 1 and the Europa League brought 3 wins and 2 losses.
That is a decent position to lose a coach from, which makes the change feel even more abrupt. Fonseca had been in charge since February 2025 and leaves with his contract due to run to June 2027, but Jorge Maciel will take over immediately and lead the side against Real Sociedad and Brest.
Sporting, meanwhile, are 3rd in the Primeira Liga with 21 points from 10 matches and 6th in the Champions League standings with 9 points from 4 matches. Fonseca arrives at a club still in the mix domestically and alive in Europe, and Lyon have already moved to protect their own run of fixtures after the break.
Written by Sam Whitfield with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 2 outlets. How we work →
