Fifteen years on from being part of a community-based sports club in Lyon, the team now known as Olympique Lyonnais Feminin are the major force in women’s football.

The Champions League winners for the past four years are a true superclub, cherry-picking the best talent from all over the world. Yet the ambition of their president, Jean-Michel Aulas, has not been sated. Last week, Aulas, the chief executive of the club’s umbrella OL Groupe, began exclusive negotiations to take a foothold in the United States by acquiring the Washington-based Reign FC of the National Women’s Soccer League.

“The president wants to be the first one, always, to do something good for women’s football,” Lyon forward Eugenie Le Sommer says. “He was the first person to trust in women’s football in France to be professional. It was a fresh thing for him. He lost a lot of money before, because he invested. It was uncertain. Now he wants to improve again. The US culture is different and I think he likes this; wants to learn from them.”

The board is always learning. This year, they have changed head coaches – out with Reynald Pedros, in with Jean-Luc Vasseur. “He speaks more than the other coach on why you play or don’t play,” Le Sommer says. “He wants to understand the player as a human.”