West Ham United will welcome French club Lille OSC to London Stadium for an exciting pre-season match on Saturday 9 August, with kick-off at 3pm BST.
The Hammers will complete preparations for the 2025/26 season by taking on top-level opposition in their final warm-up fixture, with the four-time Ligue 1 champions sure to provide a strong test for Graham Potter’s side.
The game will give the Claret and Blue Army the first chance to see how the Hammers are shaping up ahead of the big Premier League kick-off a week later.
Tickets are priced from just £10 for Adults and £5 for Under-18s, illustrating the Club’s commitment to affordable family football, and are on sale now. Click here for full pricing and sales details.
Managed by Pep Génésio, Lille finished fifth in Ligue 1 and reached the UEFA Champions League round of 16 in 2024/25 and will compete in the UEFA Europa League next season.
Head Coach Potter, who will take his squad to the United States for the Premier League Summer Series in July, believes facing high-quality opponents will help prepare his players for the competitive challenges ahead.
“We’re really looking forward to facing Lille,” he said. “Our pre-season schedule is geared to building the players up so that they are in the best possible condition when the Premier League gets underway on Saturday 16 August, and a fixture against high-quality European opposition a week beforehand is part of doing that.
“We will have had a few weeks of building the players’ fitness levels and have been to America to play against Manchester United, Everton and Bournemouth in the Premier League Summer Series, then this game gives us the opportunity to return to London Stadium and play in front of our fantastic fans again.”
This pre-season fixture will be the first-ever meeting between West Ham United and Lille, but there are historic links between the two clubs. Hammer of the Year winners Joe Cole and Dimitri Payet have played for both, as have Morgan Amalfitano, José Fonte and Youssef Sofiane.
West Ham have faced French opposition on ten previous occasions in the Club’s history, with the first in 1924, when Syd King and his players crossed the Channel to face the France Olympic XI in a warm-up fixture for the Paris Summer Games.
In the ensuing 101 years, the Hammers have welcomed Marseille to east London and travelled to France to face Lens (twice), Bordeaux (twice) and Rennes in friendly matches, faced Valenciennes in the United States, Angers in Austria, defeated Metz in the 1999 UEFA Intertoto Cup final and knocked Lyon out of the UEFA Europa League quarter-finals in style in 2022.
Now, six-time French Cup winners Lille will be added to that list when they visit London Stadium in August, so don’t miss what will be a thrilling afternoon of football!.
