Openda returns to Ligue 1 on loan at Lyon after two goals in a year at Juventus

Lois Openda is going back to France. Juventus and Lyon both confirmed on 28 July that the Belgium striker will spend the 2026-27 season at Lyon on loan, a year after Juventus committed more than 40 million euros to sign him permanently and got two goals for the money.

The terms tell you how the Italian club now sees him. There is no option to buy and no obligation attached, Lyon are covering his wages in full, and the loan fee has been reported at around 3 million euros. Juventus are not selling an asset here. They are getting a salary off the books for a year and hoping somebody else fixes him.

Two goals in 34 games

Juventus put the numbers in their own announcement, which is rarely a kindness. Openda made 34 appearances across Serie A, the Champions League and the Coppa Italia. He scored twice, once against Roma and once against Bodo/Glimt.

For a striker who arrived as the answer to Juventus’ goalscoring problem, that is close to a worst-case season. At 26 he is not at an age where anyone writes a forward off, but the Leipzig version of him is starting to feel like a while ago.

The player Juventus thought they were buying

That version was genuinely good. Openda scored 41 goals and set up 18 more in 93 matches for RB Leipzig across two seasons in the Bundesliga. Before that he had a year at Lens that put him on every big club’s list, 21 goals and four assists in 38 appearances in 2022-23.

He moved to Juventus in the summer of 2025 on loan with an obligation to buy, and the obligation duly triggered. Everything after that went sideways.

A bad season all round in Turin

Openda’s slump did not happen in isolation. Juventus finished sixth in Serie A and missed the Champions League places by two points, winning two of their last five games to close the season out. Luciano Spalletti had come in during October 2025 to replace Igor Tudor and steady it, and even he could not get the team into the top four.

A club playing Europa League football with a 40-million-euro striker who scored twice was always going to make changes. Openda was an obvious one.

Fonseca’s call

At the other end, Lyon get a low-risk swing at a forward who was one of the most productive strikers in Europe three seasons ago. Paulo Fonseca, who has final say over Lyon’s signings, is betting that Ligue 1 is where Openda works. There is history to support it. He scored 21 in a season the last time he played in this league.

Openda has now played in Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany and Italy. France is the country where his career took off, and at 26 he needs it to do so again. If it does, Juventus have a saleable asset next summer instead of a write-off. If it does not, the loan simply runs out and the problem comes home.

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