Alexandre Lacazette on Lyon return: “Many people thought I was finished.”

In his lengthy interview broadcast on this morning’s Téléfoot, Lyon striker Alexandre Lacazette notably discusses his return to his formative club this summer after five years at Arsenal.

The 31-year-old, who immediately took up the captain’s armband on his return, has scored 19 times this season. Despite Lyon’s middling campaign, Laurent Blanc’s men still have a slim chance at qualifying for Europe next season, ahead of their Olympico clash against Marseille tonight.

Asked about his homecoming, Lacazette explains that “many things had changed” and that “the pressure was different”, even if it may seem from the outside looking in that he has had no issues in returning to the goalscoring rate he had before his 2017 departure.

The former French international points out that the additional pressure came from the feeling that he had a point to prove after struggling in his final season with the Gunners:

“Because many people thought I was finished, and were saying that I wouldn’t succeed, that the club was making a mistake. I wanted to show that Lyon were right in calling on me.” 

Lacazette adds that another motivation in returning to Lyon was to be closer to his friends and family, as well as the prospect of trying to help the club return to the upper reaches of Ligue 1.

GFFN | Raphaël Jucobin