Lucien Gardon

Lucien Gardon, the Olympique Lyonnais centre-forward who formed half of the only twin pairing ever to play first-team competitive football for the club, died on 20 September 2026 in Vienne, in the Isere department of France. He was 89. Olympique Lyonnais confirmed the news on its social channels on 23 September, recalling that he made 14 appearances and scored seven goals for the club between 1958 and 1961, and offering support to his twin brother Raymond, an OL defender from 1957 to 1962.

Born on 25 May 1937 in Rive-de-Gier in the Loire, Lucien grew up with Raymond as wards of the nation after their father was killed in the Second World War at the age of 28. Their grandfather kept the twins together when AS Saint-Etienne tried to recruit Lucien alone. During military service in Lyon in 1957, at the Sergent-Blandan barracks, Olympique Lyonnais spotted Raymond as a defender in the garrison side. Grandfather insisted that Lucien come too. The attacker repaid that bet with a hat-trick in a trial friendly, then scored in the second minute of his Division 1 debut for Lyon against Nimes in August 1958 at Stade Gerland.

That Lyon spell fixed his place in club lore. In 1960 the Gardon brothers appeared together in three matches across Ligue 1 and European competition, a rare twin pairing in OL history later echoed only by the Sutter twins in the 1990s. Lucien left for Racing Club Franc-Comtois de Besancon in 1961, continued at SA Thiers, and later coached amateur sides in the Auvergne and at Noiretable while working in the cutlery trade. Regional newspaper Le Progres, which had profiled the brothers in 2023 under the banner "Gone un jour, gone toujours," reported his death and extended condolences to the Gardon family.

Supporters and local journalists long treated the Gardon story as a parable of club loyalty and family solidarity. Lucien never became a household name across France the way later Lyon strikers would, yet inside the OL community his debut goal, his short but productive scoring rate, and the image of two brothers sharing Gerland remain part of the club's oral history. In retirement he kept a low public profile, resurfacing mainly when Le Progres revisited the twins and when former teammates gathered at Rive-de-Gier. The club's 2026 tribute placed him in a sombre recent line of farewells to players from Lyon's earlier generations.

He is remembered less as a statistical giant than as a local Lyon story: a forward who arrived as a package with his twin, scored early and often in a short senior run at Gerland, and stayed tied to the Rhone valley for the rest of his life. OL's tribute, and the affection of supporters who still speak of the Gardon twins, closed a chapter that began on a garrison pitch and ended nearly seven decades later in Vienne.