Lille have ended Paris Saint-Germain’s dominance to win the Ligue 1 title after beating Angers 2-1 on Sunday.
Les Dogues become French champions for the fifth time in their history — their last title came in 2011, when Eden Hazard was part of the squad. The club also won the league in 1933, 1946 and 1954.
PSG have failed to win the title for the first time since 2017, when Kylian Mbappe led Monaco to Ligue 1 glory. The Parisians have won seven of the past nine campaigns (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2020) but came up short this year.
Despite finishing fourth last season and second during the previous campaign, Christophe Galtier’s side were not among the favourites for the title this time around. However, they had been top of the table for 18 of the 37 weeks of the season compared with nine weeks for PSG and three weeks for Lyon.
Despite their underdog tag, Lille have been here before.
In 2010/11 a squad that included Eden Hazard and Gervinho helped the northern France side lift their third Ligue 1 title and their first league crown in 57 years.
This season they’ve relied on 21-year-old Canada forward David and 35-year-old Turkey striker Yilmaz.
And it was David who settled any early nerves, latching on to a Renato Sanchez pass and side-footing Lille into the lead inside 10 minutes.
On the stroke of half-time David was caught by goalkeeper Paul Bernardoni in the penalty area with Lille player of the season Yilmaz finding the corner from 12 yards.
Angers’ Angelo Fulgini scored a late consolation goal in injury time but Lille’s victory rarely looked in doubt.
Paris St-Germain beat Brest 2-0 but failed to lift the crown for only the second time in nine years.
Monaco, who drew 0-0 with Lens, took the final Champions League spot after Lyon lost 3-2 to Nice.
Lyon will be in next season’s Europa League while Marseille and Rennes qualify for the Europa Conference League.
Nantes are set for a relegation play-off with Toulouse in four days’ time after losing 2-1 at home to Montpellier.