PIERRE SAGE'S LYON MEMORY: "HE BURST INTO TEARS"

Manager Pierre Sage, who pulled Olympique Lyonnais out of that great crisis last season and saved the club from the edge of the cliff, gained a very special status in the city. The successful coach shared a highly emotional memory with all his sincerity that proved that unshakable throne he established in the hearts of the fans. In that special interview he gave to Le Parisien newspaper, the experienced football man, who revealed that massive passion of the Lyon people for the club, told those unique minutes he experienced in a shopping mall word for word as follows: "Last summer I was at Galeries Lafayette in Lyon buying a pair of sunglasses, a man, who is between 55 and 60 years old, came up to me. He burst into tears. His wife arrived, she burst into tears too. The two of them made me cry but... I didn't know why. He said to me: 'Listen, I was really scared of losing OL and I really wanted to thank you.' That man made his wife, my partner, and me cry in a Lyon shopping mall." This historic confession of the successful coach showed that football did not consist only of a game and how great a source of life deep-rooted clubs were for the people living in that city. Those moments when tears flowed like a flood aroused a very deep echo in the French football public. How vital a job the coach achieved by keeping the team in the league was proven once again with this brief but intense memory. Thousands of fans who read this interview also experienced similar feelings and expressed their gratitude to the experienced coach many times. That unforgettable day went down in history as a highly valuable memory.

IMAGE: LE PARİSİEN