LYON, France (AP) — Not only did OL Lyonnes miss the chance of a record-extending ninth Women's Champions League title, the crushing 4-0 loss to Barcelona in last season's final underlined its rival's ongoing status as the best side in the game.
When goal-scoring midfielder Caroline Weir joined Lyon from Real Madrid in the offseason, she understood how much that loss hurt.
“Everyone that was here last season knows what it took to get there. Obviously the disappointment of that final, I know the players felt that,” Weir told The Associated Press in an interview at the club’s training ground on Monday.
“I’m a new player, I’m here to learn from the players who have that experience. Also the coach (Jonatan Giráldez) has been there and done it.”
The Women's Champions League begins Tuesday and sees 18 teams competing over six match days in the league phase, with the top four advancing to the quarterfinals and the clubs finishing between fifth and 12th entering knockout-phase playoffs.
After shrugging off a minor muscle injury, Weir could make her Lyon debut at Swiss club Servette on Wednesday.
“It starts now,” the 31-year-old Weir said. “It’s exciting that the games are coming a little bit quicker.”
She scored freely in Spain — 20 goals overall last season and 28 during the 2022-23 campaign — and is aware what makes Barca tick.
Painfully so, since Barca crushed Madrid 12-2 on aggregate in last season's quarterfinals. Weir played in the first leg, a 6-2 home loss.
“We all know how good they are on the ball,” she said.
The last five women’s Ballon d’Or awards have been split by Barca players Alexia Putellas and Aitana Bonmati.
“Their mentality, they’ve gained so much experience of winning and I think that tells in their performances,” Weir said of Putellas and Bonmati. “Physically (too), I think that sometimes gets overlooked with the Barcelona team, if you look at their players individually, whether that be speed, strength.”
Barca’s first Champions League title in 2021 ended Lyon’s run of five in a row and, although Lyon won the competition the following year, it has not done so since. Barca has reached the past six finals, winning four.
Weir hopes she can help her club improve in key moments under the guidance of Giráldez, who previously guided Barca to two Champions League titles.
“The coach has been very clear with me about his expectations and what he likes of me as a player — impact the game in the final third (of the pitch),” she explained. “If that’s scoring goals or assisting, that’s where I judge my seasons. At the end of the season, I will look at that impact, especially in big games.”
While Weir’s scoring rate has increased, including 10 goals in six games for Scotland this year, she also has a more rounded game.
“I was mainly at Manchester City in my time in England. There I learned a lot tactically and then, moving to Spain, I was given quite a free role at Real Madrid which I really enjoyed,” Weir said. “The biggest challenge is to adapt (and) I’m excited to play in a different league.”
One of the factors in Weir joining Lyon was Michele Kang, the club president.
The American businesswoman, who has dedicated herself to growing women's soccer, also owns Washington Spirit in the National Women’s Soccer League and London City Lionesses.
“Just the way she speaks about the game, I think it’s really inspiring,” Weir said. “She wants equal opportunities and I think (Lyon's) a really cool club to be at. It was a factor in my decision. She is backing us all the way.”
In May last year, OL Féminin became OL Lyonnes. Kang told The AP that the name change was about creating “ our own identity as a woman’s team.”
While Kang’s strong commitment led her to finance a new female-specific training campus for the club, other women's teams are not as fortunate and some have even folded.
Weir says improving “sustainability” is crucial.
“The ceiling has been raised a lot but I think we need to keep raising. The lower levels, the access, the facilities. Grassroots level through to the lower tiers of football in all countries,” she said. “Also, (more) women in coaching roles in football, women in decision-making roles, there’s a way to go there.”
Growing up in the city of Dunfermline, Weir always had a ball by her side.
“Loving it, enjoying it, going down to training on the local playing fields and being the only girl, scoring goals,” she said. “I always had a ball with me, whether that was by myself kicking it against a wall, or in school, or with the boys’ team I played for, from age five to 10.”
Now she is Scotland's captain, calling it the “biggest honor” of her career, and is desperate to lead her nation at next year’s World Cup.
See AP’s full soccer coverage here
FILE - Real Madrid's Caroline Weir, center, jumps to control the ball in front of Arsenal's Kim Little, right, during the Women's Champions League quarterfinal first leg soccer match between Real Madrid and Arsenal at the Alfredo di Stefano stadium in Madrid, Spain, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Fran Berg, File)
OL Lyonnes midfielder Caroline Weir sits down for an interview at the club's training ground ahead of the start of the Women's Champions League, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026, in Lyon, France. (AP Photo/Jerome Pugmire)
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Venezuelan man shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer and taken to a detention center in Texas with a bullet still lodged in his back was back in the hospital by Monday night, the man’s attorney said.
Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, was making a DoorDash delivery in Austin on Sunday when his car was “sideswiped” twice by ICE officers in an unmarked truck, immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch told reporters earlier Monday. He was shot and taken to a hospital, she said, but was released later Sunday into ICE custody with the bullet still inside him.
Speaking by phone during a news conference, Perez had said doctors didn’t remove the bullet because it’s near his spine. He said ICE pressed for him to be released quickly from the hospital so it could move him to a detention center. He said he had received no pain medication or treatment there, and had slept on the floor, before eventually being given a “pill” by a nurse on Monday.
By Monday night, Lincoln-Goldfinch said he had been taken to the hospital.
U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, a Texas Democrat, described this as a positive first step.
“Now, we have to make sure he fully recovers, is reunited with his family, and gets to tell law enforcement the full story of how he was shot in the back by ICE,” he said.
Perez said earlier Monday that ICE officers didn’t ask him to stop or turn on any flashing lights until after they had sideswiped him. He said he did a U-turn and was trying to park when the officers rammed his car and shot him in the back of the neck.
“I am not doing well due to the gunshot wound, and I have not received the medical attention that I require,” Perez said, speaking in Spanish over the phone as a member of his attorney's staff translated during the news conference.
Perez had been detained at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, about 130 miles (209 kilometers) southwest of Austin, Lincoln-Goldfinch said. She said Perez told her in a prior phone call that he was being interrogated.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, has released little information and has not said what prompted the shooting. In a statement early Monday, the department said it was investigating the shooting of a Venezuelan man in the U.S. illegally who “had a final order of removal.”
Homeland Security did not immediately respond to email messages seeking further comment on the shooting.
Perez entered the U.S. legally in 2024 after using CBP One, a program begun under President Joe Biden that set up appointments with U.S. authorities to be considered for asylum, Lincoln-Goldfinch said. President Donald Trump ended the program on his first day in office.
Perez's attorneys said he was an asylum seeker and had a valid work permit, Lincoln-Goldfinch said. She said a judge issued a deportation order for Perez after he missed a hearing in immigration court because the hearing notice was sent to a former address.
“Not that being out of status would justify any of this at all,” Lincoln-Goldfinch said of the shooting in a social media post.
The shooting occurred amid a surge in ICE enforcement across the U.S. during Trump's second term. During the summer, it reported more than 50,000 monthly arrests in July and August — a first for the agency.
Immigration officers have come under intense scrutiny amid a series of shootings during the crackdown. At least four people have been fatally shot by federal officers during immigration enforcement operations this year.
Local advocates, leaders of the civil rights group the League of United Latin American Citizens and two Democratic congressmen who represent parts of Austin called during the news conference for the creation of an independent body to review use-of-force incidents by ICE and refer suspected crimes to prosecutors.
They also urged Congress to ban ICE officers from making traffic stops, saying the officers are undertrained and too quick to resort to violence.
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, a Democrat, has said he wants local police to have a role in investigating the shooting. Watson said it wouldn’t be appropriate for ICE to investigate on its own.
Protesters gathered outside the Texas Capitol in Austin on Monday night, chanting against ICE and carrying signs that said such things as, “Justice 4 Wilber Perez.”
In the area beneath an overpass near the shooting scene, people had left candles, flowers and a sign that read “Justice for Wilber,” while concrete pylons were marked with anti-ICE graffiti.
Associated Press journalists Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.
People speak during a demonstration where a man was shot in his vehicle by an ICE officer, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Joel Angel Juarez)
Authorities deploy non-lethal weapons near a demonstration where a man was shot in his vehicle by an ICE officer, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Joel Angel Juarez)
A man photographs a spray-painted surface that reads "death to immigration enforcement" near the site where a man was shot in his vehicle by an ICE officer the day before in Austin, Texas, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Flowers and candles are seen near the site where a Venezuelan man was shot in his vehicle by an ICE officer in Austin, Texas, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Flowers and candles are placed, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026, near the site where an ICE officer shot a Venezuelan man during a traffic stop the day before, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Jesse Bedayn)
People protest where local authorities say a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer (ICE) shot and wounded a man in Austin, Texas, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Joel Angel Juarez)
Flowers and candles are placed, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026, near the site where an ICE officer shot a Venezuelan man during a traffic stop the day before, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Jesse Bedayn)
