So the new French Ligue 1 season brings a new home shirt for Lyon.  The colours of the new Lyon strip are predominantly the same as before, which is mainly white, with a slightly different pattern to previously, with the horizontal red and blue strip going through the chest.  And there is no change in the kit sponsor of Novotel.  There is no collar to this shirt, and I do not remember seeing many recent Lyon shirts with a collar in the last few seasons.  The kit manufacturer stays the same as well with Umbro.

In my opinion this is quite a nice and traditional style shirt, and if I was a Lyon fan I would be happy with it.  You can see similarities in the style of it when you compare it to the England home shirt that was recently replaced, also made by Umbro.

Over the years Lyon have become the dominant force in French football, winning lots of league titles and carrying forward their domestic form on to the Eurpean stage with surprisingly good progression in the Champions League.  It is always a refreshing change to see a team like Lyon giving the likes of Barcelona and Manchester United a good run for their money.  Hopefully the new Lyon football shirt will give the club a bit of good luck they need to regain the Ligue 1 crown and progress further in the Champions League.

There are many current stars who wear the Lyon football kit which I’m sure will catch peoples’ eye when deciding upon which name they should get on the back of the shirt.  Names like Cris, Benzema, Bodmer, Makoun, Toulalan and Grosso all come to mind but personally if I were to choose I would go for Juninho.  He recently finished playing for the club but I think he has been a great talisman for them, always reliable and possessing great feet, especially at free kicks.

Steve Aitken