Lyon expected to allow manager Sonia Bompastor to discuss Chelsea switch

Sonia Bompastor pictured in 2021 after her appointment as Lyon’s head coach. Photograph: Philippe Desmazes/AFP/Getty Images

Lyon are expected to allow their head coach, Sonia Bompastor, to discuss a potential move to Chelsea after the Women’s Super League leaders made contact with the French club as they step up attempts to replace Emma Hayes next season.

Bompastor, a 43-year-old former midfielder who won 156 caps for France, led Lyon to the Champions League title in 2022 and has been identified as the leading candidate to take over when Hayes leaves at the end of this campaign to become the head coach of the USA women’s national team.

It is understood that after an extensive recruitment process, Chelsea approached Lyon this week and that negotiations are continuing with Bompastor and her club over potential compensation.

She is under contract until 2025, although it is understood that Lyon’s majority owner, Michele Kang, had been considering making a change at the end of this season after completing her takeover last week. Lyon are expected to demand what one source described as “significant compensation” for Bompastor, who would probably bring her long-term assistant and partner, Camille Abily, with her if she moves to Chelsea.

Hayes has known Bompastor for some time, having been on the coaching staff at the US club Washington Freedom when Bompastor was part of the playing squad in 2010.

“She was just a cultured, brilliant footballer that’s very quiet, cheeky, funny – the media might not always see that about her,” Hayes said of Bompastor before Chelsea beat Lyon in last season’s Champions League quarter-finals. “But it’s of no surprise to me that her and Camille have done well working together.”

Kang, a South Korea-born businesswoman, also owns a stake in the NWSL side Washington Spirit and bought the Women’s Championship side London City Lionesses in December. She owns more than 52% of Lyon’s women’s team and is said to have “big plans” that include building a dedicated women’s campus at the training ground.

“Women’s football is a business that can be profitable,” she said last week at her unveiling as owner. “We have the best players in the world. We are fighting to create the best leagues. I don’t want to make it an association, I see it as a business.”