The current National 3 manager is Gueida Fofana, who played for Olympique Lyonnais before but had his career cut-short due to injuries.

'Why French football goes into wall'; 2015), published by Hugo Sport, the training provided in Olympique Lyonnais academy favors the technical learning of football over match results, like FC Barcelona: thus, "Lyon educators do not hesitate to have defenders play in midfield so that 'they can learn to use their feet better".

[4] Between 2012 and 2019, Lyon appears successively eight times in top 4 of the International Centre for Sports Studies list of the best football academies in Europe.

[5] In February 2014, L'Équipe writes that Olympique Lyonnais ranks second in terms of the number of players trained at the club and playing in the "five major European championships" (Germany, England, Spain, France and Italy) tied with Real Madrid, and the first being FC Barcelona.

[6][7] In 2015, France Football rated Lyon youth academy as one of the best in Europe, as it is used to feed the first team, and also having a pool of players with value on the transfer market, without this being in the heart of the club's policy.

Just as regularly, a certain number of them manage to have a good national or international career such as Ludovic Giuly, Karim Benzema, Alexandre Lacazette, Samuel Umtiti, or Nabil Fekir.

As of 7 February 2025[9] Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply.

[10] Below is a non-exhaustive list of notable players who trained in the youth or reserve teams of Olympique Lyonnais: France