Olympique Lyonnais have appointed former AC Milan manager Paulo Fonseca as their new head coach on a 2 1/2-year contract, the Ligue 1 club announced on Friday.
Lyon sacked Pierre Sage earlier this week but made it into the last 16 of the Europa League after a 1-1 home draw with Ludogorets in their final group-stage match on Thursday.
The club are sixth in the French top-flight after managing just one win in their last five league games and were knocked out of the French Cup following a defeat by French fifth-tier club Bourgoin-Jallieu.
“Olympique Lyonnais is very pleased to announce the appointment of Paulo Fonseca as head coach of the professional team until June 30, 2027,” Lyon said in a statement.
“This choice, taken unanimously by John Textor and the entire sports management, is part of the desire to give Olympique Lyonnais a strong ambition, both on the national and European scene.”
Fonseca was most recently manager of AC Milan, who sacked him in late December after only six months in the job. He previously managed Lille in Ligue 1, guiding them to a fourth-place finish last season.
The Portuguese manager, a defender in his playing days, started his managerial career with the youth team of Estrela Amadora in 2005 before taking charge of Porto in 2013, followed by stints with Braga, Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk and AS Roma from 2019-2021.
He won the Portuguese Super Cup with Porto in 2013, the Cup of Portugal with Braga in 2015-16, as well as the Ukrainian Premier League with Shakhtar three times in a row.
His first match in charge of Lyon will be their trip to Olympique de Marseille on Sunday.
