André Guy

André Guy died on 25 September 2026 at the age of 85. Olympique Lyonnais announced the news the same day, writing that it had learned at midday of the death of its former striker, 129 matches and 76 goals between 1967 and 1971, Division 1 top scorer in 1969 with 25 goals, and the 18th highest scorer in Ligue 1 history. The club offered condolences to his family.

LOSC Lille paid tribute to the international forward who wore its colours from 1965 to 1967. Stade Rennais recalled his role in the 1971 Coupe de France. No place or cause of death has been made public. Lyon noted that the news came only months after the club lost another player of that era, striker Lucien Gardon.

André Guy was born on 3 March 1941 in Bourg-en-Bresse, in the Ain department of eastern France. He learned the game in the youth sides of the Lyon region and, as a teenager, played with future professionals including Jean Djorkaeff and Lucien Degeorges.

He then signed for FC Sochaux-Montbeliard, a respected training club of that era. Guy later said that if he had failed to make the grade there, the club's link with the Peugeot car works would still have given him a job. He appeared only sparingly for the first team between 1960 and 1962, scoring eight goals in 14 official matches.

Guy reached Saint-Etienne in 1962 as a makeweight in Sochaux's attempt to buy Ginès Liron. He quickly became the first choice centre forward. The club won the French second division in 1963 and the first division in 1964, with Guy scoring 28 league goals in his first season at the top level. Knee trouble limited him in 1964 to 1965, though he still scored 17 times.

After three seasons he wanted a move. Saint-Etienne president Roger Rocher refused to sell him to Monaco or Lyon and instead transferred him to Lille OSC for 40 million old francs. Guy later said Saint-Etienne had paid nothing for him and had then made a golden deal. He scored 42 league goals in two seasons at Lille.

In 1967 he joined Olympique Lyonnais. In four seasons he scored 76 goals in 129 matches. The 1968 to 1969 campaign brought the Division 1 golden boot with 25 goals, then a Lyon seasonal record, later surpassed by Alexandre Lacazette. In January 1971 he moved to Stade Rennais and, that May, scored the penalty that beat Lyon 1-0 in the Coupe de France final at Colombes. He finished his career at SC Toulon (1971 to 1973) and JGA Nevers (1973 to 1974). Official career figures are 432 matches and 241 goals.

He won eight caps for France and scored twice. His first appearance was on 4 October 1964 and his last on 6 November 1968. He also played once for the France under-21 side in 1964.

Public records of Guy's playing years describe a centre forward of 1.78 metres, an old fashioned number nine who lived by goals rather than by celebrity. Detailed accounts of his family life, marriage or children have not been widely published in the tributes that followed his death. He spent his playing career in eastern and northern France, at Sochaux, Saint-Etienne, Lille, Lyon, Rennes, Toulon and Nevers, and remained identified with Olympique Lyonnais long after he stopped playing.

Guy's 25-goal season for Lyon in 1968 to 1969 remained a club record for 46 years until Alexandre Lacazette scored 27, then 28, in the mid-2010s. Career totals of 241 official goals in 432 matches place him among the leading French strikers of the postwar championship. In 2022 the magazine So Foot ranked him 78th in its top 1,000 players of the French championship.

He is remembered in Lyon as one of the club's great centre forwards, in Saint-Etienne as a championship winner of 1964, and in Rennes as the man who scored the penalty that won the 1971 cup against his former club. French Wikipedia and club archives preserve that record.