{"id":645691,"date":"2026-06-18T17:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T17:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/645691\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T17:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T17:29:09","slug":"ol-lyonnes-and-scotlands-caroline-weir-i-would-love-to-be-competing-for-the-champions-league-ol-lyonnes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/645691\/","title":{"rendered":"OL Lyonnes and Scotland\u2019s Caroline Weir: \u2018I would love to be competing for the Champions League\u2019 | OL Lyonnes"},"content":{"rendered":"

June 2026 is a month Caroline Weir is unlikely to forget. She scored seven goals in two Scotland games as they clinched top spot in their World Cup qualifying group, watched on with joy at 2am as Scotland\u2019s men secured their first World Cup finals win for 36 years<\/a> and then her move to OL Lyonnes was confirmed by the eight-time European champions.<\/p>\n

The Scotland captain says the lure of playing for Europe\u2019s most decorated women\u2019s club made the transfer an easy decision after four happy years playing for Real Madrid.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this stage in my career, I want to push on,\u201d the 30-year-old says of joining this season\u2019s beaten Champions League finalists<\/a>. \u201cI want to be competing to win things, I want to be playing with the best players. I would love to be up there competing for the Champions League. The way the competition now is so competitive, there are so many more eyes on it and I want to be in the final stages.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s never a given \u2013 it\u2019s really tough to get to semi-finals and finals \u2013 but I want to be in the conversation or at least at a club [where] that\u2019s what they prepare to be at. They\u2019re a massive club with a successful history and lots of trophies. I want to challenge myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weir says conversations with the Lyonnes head coach, Jonatan Gir\u00e1ldez, helped convince her this move was the right choice. The former Barcelona coach outlined how he envisaged her thriving in his tactical plans. \u201cIt was interesting speaking to him,\u201d says Weir, who signed a three-year contract. \u201cWe spoke about things he thought I was good at. We also spoke about things he thought I could improve, which was good for me to hear, and my style of play, [being] a No 10, being left-footed and how he sees me playing alongside others in that position. We did speak quite in-depth about tactics. That gave me a good idea of what to expect.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s worked with the best players and won everything so there were a number of factors involved, but it was an easy decision in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quick GuideSpurs in talks to sign PanengstuenShow\"\"<\/p>\n

Tottenham are in advanced talks to sign the Norway goalkeeper Selma Panengstuen from SK Brann. The 23-year-old, who has played twice for Norway, is understood to be keen on the move and all parties are confident the deal will be concluded soon. <\/p>\n

Spurs have signed Shekiera Martinez from West Ham, Caitlin Dijkstra from Wolfsburg and Kirsty Hanson from Aston Villa in this window, after finishing fifth in the Women\u2019s Super League.<\/p>\n

Panengstuen would be reunited with Martin Ho, who coached her briefly at Brann before his switch to Tottenham last summer. She is understood to have six months on her contract. Tom Garry<\/p>\n

Photograph: Marius Simensen\/Shutterstock Editorial<\/p>\n

Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n

Before pre-season training begins in July, Weir has three big things on her to-do list for settling into a new city: finding a good nail salon, finding somewhere to get her eyelashes done and acquainting herself with the best local parks in which to walk her dog \u2013 Parc de la T\u00eate d\u2019Or, near the Rh\u00f4ne, should be ideal. Weir, who had never been to Lyon before discussing her transfer, says: \u201cI know it\u2019s the food capital of France; I\u2019ve been hearing the food is amazing. When I went there, it reminded me a little bit of Edinburgh.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weir says she and her husband will miss the Madrid lifestyle. She leaves as Real\u2019s all-time record scorer with 63 goals in 125 appearances and will look back fondly on her four years in Spain, where she finished as a league runner-up to Barcelona each season.<\/p>\n

\u2018My only regret is we didn\u2019t win that first title.\u2019 Caroline Weir leaves Real Madrid as the club\u2019s all-time record scorer, but she never won a major trophy. Photograph: Oscar J Barroso\/AFP7\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

\u201cI reflect with very happy memories, on and off the pitch,\u201d says Weir. \u201cMy only regret is we didn\u2019t win that first title. But apart from that, how I impacted the team, I\u2019m really proud of those statistics. Me and my husband were very happy there. It\u2019s an amazing lifestyle, an amazing city. But I feel like that chapter came to a natural end and I was ready to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bidding farewell to Weir, Real said they wished to \u201cexpress gratitude and affection for everything she has contributed to our club, as well as for her professionalism, commitment and dedication\u201d. She also received a personalised message on a signed shirt from Jude Bellingham. \u201cJude and I have spoken several times. We\u2019ve always got on well and had nice conversations about the club and Madrid. For him to write that message \u2013 I would have been happy with the signed top \u2013 just shows how classy a person he is. He\u2019s a great guy and that was a really nice touch.\u201d<\/p>\n

They could not meet to say goodbye because Bellingham was training with England for the World Cup, which is whetting Weir\u2019s appetite for next summer\u2019s Women\u2019s World Cup in Brazil. After Weir scored a hat-trick against Israel on 5 June, then backed it up with four goals against the same opponents four days later, Scotland topped their League B group in European qualifying to reach the playoffs. They will find out their playoff opponents on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u2018Going to Brazil for a World Cup, it\u2019s just what dreams are all about.\u2019 Caroline Weir scored seven goals in two matches to help Scotland reach the qualifying playoffs. Photograph: Nikola Krstic\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

After watching the men beat Haiti<\/a> as a fan back home in Scotland, Weir, named as the women\u2019s captain in February, says: \u201cI\u2019ve never seen so many Scotland tops. It is amazing. Scotland flags on cars, outside houses. It\u2019s really special. It\u2019s so inspiring.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing to Brazil for a World Cup, it\u2019s No 1 on my list of dreams. We were speaking about it a lot recently and because the guys are there, the experiences they\u2019re having and how much the country is supporting them, we would love a bit of that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve completed the first step, getting to the playoffs, and then we\u2019ll look forward to the playoffs at the end of the year. We\u2019ll take it step by step.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"June 2026 is a month Caroline Weir is unlikely to forget. She scored seven goals in two Scotland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-645691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}