Lyon-Villeurbanne U21

The Espoirs go into the LNB Espoirs Elite this season as the reigning champions, having taken the 2022 title after also winning the Trophée du Futur the year before.

The team functions as the youth arm of ASVEL, playing out of the Astroballe rather than the OL Arena the first team fills for bigger nights, and running under the black and white the club adopted in 2018. Home games there carry weight against JL Bourg-en-Bresse, with Monaco and Paris providing the other regular tests.

What sets the academy apart is who has passed through it. Victor Wembanyama spent part of the 2021-2022 season with the Espoirs, and Zacharie Risacher followed a similar route out of the same setup to a first-round selection in 2024. Elwin Ndjock, named MVP of the Trophée du Futur in 2021, is remembered as one of the group's own products winning silverware. The presence of the Tony Parker Adéquat Academy alongside the club's structure has reinforced that reputation.

None of that traces back to a separate founding. The Espoirs exist because ASVEL itself does, the product of a 1948 merger between Association Sportive Villeurbanne and Éveil Lyonnais that gave Villeurbanne a senior club worth building an academy under.