Football Club de Nantes is a French football team, based in the city of Nantes, currently playing in Ligue 2.
The team has one of the most impressive histories in French football with 8 Ligue 1 titles and 3 Coupe de France. On the European level, the club reached the semi-finals of UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1979-80 and UEFA Champions League 1995-96.
FC Nantes is also famous for its jeu à la nantaise , its collective spirit mainly advocated under coaches José Arribas, Jean-Claude Suaudeau and Raynald Denoueix, and for its youth system, which has produced players such as Marcel Desailly, Didier Deschamps and Christian Karembeu.
In the 2008-09 season, the team was relegated from Ligue 1 having only been promoted the season before.
History
Early beginnings
In 1943, Nantes had five football clubs (Saint-Pierre, Stade Nantais U.C., A.C. Batignolles, A.S.O. Nantaise and Mellinet). However, Mellinet’s manager, Marcel Saupin, realised that Nantes could have a better chance of sporting success if they merged: he declared “Today we are a small team, but we will become a great team if we work together one day”.
Following the club’s first season which was average, Saupin went to Paris along with other club members where many young footballers were emigrating into the provinces in order to avoid having to carry out forced labour in Germany due to the Service du travail obligatoire . Here he found the club a Professional trainer as well as several quality players, after which Saupin became the Club chairman in 1944.
Following the group’s success, its healthy finances and by the fact that Saupin was a personal friend of Gabriel Hanot, FC Nantes became part of the Groupment of Authorised Clubs, and subsequently a professional team when the war ended in July 1945.
Period 1945-1963
The first match FC Nantes played as a professional team took place at the Stade Olympique de Colombes against CA Paris, where FC Nantes triumphed 2-0. The first home match was a defeat of the same score against AS Troyes (2600 supporters attended, making the club a total of 118,045 old francs). The club finished fifth at the end of this first season following which the club’s manager Aimé Nuic left the club following a dispute, and was succeeded by Antoine Raab who took over as a manager-player. After winning 16 consecutive matches, Nantes bowed down 9-0 to Sochaux, the top team of the moment. In 1963 the town council decided to give substantial subsidies to the club to give it a leg-up to climb into the next division.
Period 1963-1973
On the first of June 1963, the club won its place in the first division against Sochaux. Marcel Saupin died on 10 June and would never see the club he created amongst the elite. FC Nantes went on to win the 1964-65 and 1965-66 championships with a well polished game, partly thanks to José Arribas, a fan of a more offensive game strategy who was making his first contributions to that which would become known as the jeu à la nantaise .
Period 1973-1983
It was during this period that the famous jeu à la nantaise , made up of well-oiled and offensive tactics, makes its appearance. In the summer of 1976, manager José Arribas leaves his role to Jean Vincent at the top of the French Division 1. The former player from the Stade de Reims team would remain the team’s manager until 1982 when Jean-Claude Suaudeau, another fan of the jeu à la nantaise and who was also coached by José Arribas in the 1960s, replaced him.
Apart from the titles of French Champion which the Football Club de Nantes held in 1973, 1977, 1980 and 1983, the canaries won their first Coupe de France in 1979 against AJ Auxerre with 4 goals to 1 after extra time, and after a hat trick from Eric Pécout. Then in June 1983 the Nantes team battled out a Coupe de France final against Paris Saint-Germain, with a memorable goal from José Touré (nicknamed “the Brazilian” after this glorious feat), but which nevertheless didn’t stop Paris Saint-Germain from winning the game 3 goals to 2, preventing FC Nantes from obtaining the double French Cup-French Championship title.
FC Nantes really spread its wings throughout the 1982-83 season, and even it’s most dangerous rival (Girondins de Bordeaux) ceded underneath the offensive pressure exerted by the club, and left the game at Nantes home Marcel Saupin stadium defeated at 4-0, partly thanks to a well-oiled match and the golden touch of the Yugoslavian player Vahid Halilhodžić, responsible for a total of 27 goals, and who finished best striker of the championship.
Period 1983-1992
After been at the top of the table for several years, then coming second in the 1984-5 championship (behind Bordeaux) and in 1985-6 (behind Paris Saint-Germain), FC Nantes went through a much more difficult period. In 1988, Jean-Claude Suaudeau’s place at the head of the first team was taken over by Miroslav Blazevic. His results were not, however, in line with the clubs ambitions – Nantes coming 7th in 1988-9 and 1989-90 and gaining a pitiful 15th place in 1991, having no title to add to their record during these three seasons. In July 1991 the club re-instated Jean-Claude Suaudeau, and in July 1992, the after spending a fortnight in the second division due to an administrative decision by the DNGG (French Football’s financial regulator), FC Nantes is renamed FC Nantes Atlantique, and is able to take its place in the 1st Division back.
Period 1992-1997
In 1992, the jeu à la nantaise made its comeback. The club subsequently made the finals of the French Championship in 1992-3; semi-finals of the French Cup in 1993-4; won the 1994-5 Championship and was Semi finalist in the Champion’s league of 1995-6. This period saw the development of a host of players such as Japhet N'Doram, Patrice Loko, Reynald Pedros, Nicolas Ouédec, Claude Makélélé, and Christian Karembeu.
Between 1995 and 1997 the club underwent financial difficulties and the best players left one after the other with mixed futures: Loko, Ouedec and Pedros quickly forgotten and dropped from the Equipe de France shortly after Euro 96; Japhet N’Doram fought against persistent injuries at AS Monaco; whilst Karembeu and Makelele fared better, managing to succeed abroad (notably at Real Madrid) and both become active members of the French team.
Tired of the transfers of his best players at the end of each season, Jean-Claude Suaudeau quit the footballing world in 1996 and handed over the ropes to Raynald Denoueix, previously the second team’s coach.
Period 1997-2005
After a catastrophic beginning to the 1996-7 season, the team finished 3 place in the championship after playing 30 games without a single defeat. They were deprived of qualification in the champion’s league by AS Monaco (with a score of 2-1). After this, FC Nantes Atlantique stagnated in the middle of the table for a few seasons but finally found a buyer after becoming champion once more in 2001 with Viorel Moldovan, Eric Carrière or Salomon Olembé. It was then bought out by Socpresse (a media group) who designated a chairman who was completely oblivious to the footballing world: Jean-Luc Gripond.
On 11 March 2004, Groupe Dassault became the new owner of the club after buying out the Socpresse group. Dassault didn't intervene in the running of the club and left the executive team as it was, thus showing that it never really wanted to own the football club, and whose only aspiration was to not lose money from it. In the 2003/4 season, Nantes is defeated by Sochaux after its captain and goalkeeper Mickaël Landreau misses a goal during a penalty shoot-out, thus depriving the team of the League Cup, and a spot in the UEFA Cup.
The following season was the worst the club ever had since it rose into ligue 1, with Nantes narrowly missing relegation. During this season the club had an unprecedented crisis, with the revolt of the players lead by Landreau, calling for the sacking of their manager Loïc Amisse; the team’s supporters also joined in the revolt, notably at a match at Sochaux where they ripped out over 150 seats and injured 4 stewards in a vain attempt to stir up Chairman Gripond.
Before the start of the 2005/6 season, Serge Dassault’s team asks executives Robert Budzynski and Kléber Bobin as well as the players Mickaël Landreau and Frédéric Da Rocha to leave. At the same time Vahid Halilhodzic is approached to become manager, even though Serge Le Dizet had only been in place for six months. Jean-Luc Gripond was also finally replaced by Rudi Rousillon on 28 June 2005 following an Extraordinary meeting of the Dassault group.
Period 2006-2008
On 20 September 2006, Georges Eo replaced Serge Le Dizet as club manager. He would only hold this position for five months however, being replaced by the duo Michel Der Zakarian / Japhet N'Doram on 12 February 2007. On 9 May of the same year, despite their victory against Bordeaux (1-0), FC Nantes was mathematically relegated to the league below. The Yellows would therefore get ready to dispute their 19th Ligue 2 season in the club’s history. This season would be smitten by the coming and going of a record number of assistant managers, by the arrival and the departure of Fabien Barthez and by the crowds invading the pitch at the last ho
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