Association Sportive Nancy Lorraine (), commonly known as AS Nancy Lorraine, or simply Nancy, is a French association football club founded in 1967 in Nancy,

Grand Est Grand Est (; gsw-FR, Grossa Oschta; Moselle Franconian/ lb, Grouss Osten; Rhine Franconian: ''Groß Oschte''; german: Großer Osten ; en, "Great East") is an administrative region in Northeastern France. It superseded three former administra ...

and located in

Tomblaine Tomblaine () is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France. Stage 7 of the Tour de France on 7 July 2012 started in Tomblaine. The Stade Marcel Picot, football stadium to Ligue 1 side AS Nancy, is located within t ...

, in the inner suburbs of Nancy. The club currently plays in Ligue 2, but will compete for the first time in the club’s history in the

Championnat National The Championnat de France National ( en, French National Championship), commonly referred to as simply National or Division 3, serves as the third division of the French football league system behind Ligue 1 and Ligue 2. Contested by 18 clubs, ...

in the 2022–23 season. The club was founded in 1967 by Maurice de Vienne under the name of Union sportive Frontière, then was later renamed Association sportive Lorraine in 1928. In 1967, following the collapse of

FC Nancy Football club de Nancy was a French association football team playing in the city of Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle. The team was founded in 1901 and dissolved in 1968. Honours * Coupe de France The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Cou ...

, the club created a professional section and as such changed its name to become Association Sportive Nancy Lorraine. The club currently plays at the stade Marcel-Picot, a 20,000 seats capacity stadium located in the town of Tomblaine, where its head office is also located. The infrastructures of the training center are located within the forest of Haye business park, in Bois-de-Haye. The club has won 7 titles until this day: the

Coupe de France The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Coupe Charles Simon, is the premier knockout cup competition in French football organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). It was first held in 1917 and is open to all amateur and profession ...

(1978), the Coupe de la Ligue (2006) and five Ligue 2 champion titles (1975, 1990, 1998, 2005 and 2016). The club also has three participations in European competitions to its credit: one participation in the

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tourn ...

in 1979 and two participations in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

in 2007 and 2008. In December 2020, Chien Lee, PMG, Partners Path Capital and Krishen Sud acquired

AS Nancy Lorraine Association Sportive Nancy Lorraine (), commonly known as AS Nancy Lorraine, or simply Nancy, is a French association football club founded in 1967 in Nancy, Grand Est and located in Tomblaine, in the inner suburbs of Nancy. The club currently ...

and Chien Lee became the chairman of the board, replacing Jacques Rousselot who had been in charge since 1995 and Gauthier Ganaye became the CEO of AS Nancy. ASNL is renowned as a club with a good training center. One of the club's most notable players is

Michel Platini Michel François Platini (born 21 June 1955) is a French football administrator and former player and manager. Regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time, Platini won the Ballon d'Or three times in a row, in 1983, 1984 and 1985, a ...

, the former president of

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

. Platini began his career at the club in 1972, playing eight seasons with Nancy. He scored the only goal in the aforementioned Coupe de France final and won two French Player of the Year awards whilst playing with the club. Platini also established himself as a French international while at the club and went on to achieve numerous team and individual accolades after his departure from Nancy. He is considered to be, arguably, the club's greatest player ever and, upon entering the section of the club's official website showing Nancy's greats, a picture of a young Platini is displayed. Can also be cited great players such as

Mustapha Hadji Mustapha Hadji (born 16 November 1971) is a Moroccan football coach and former player. He was named the 50th greatest African player of all time by the African football expert Ed Dove. Early life Hadji was born in Ifrane Atlas-Saghir, Morocco. ...

, African

Ballon d'Or The Ballon d'Or (; ) is an annual association football, football award presented by French news magazine ''France Football'' since 1956. Between 2010 and 2015, in an agreement with FIFA, the award was temporarily merged with the FIFA World Pl ...

in 1998, his brother Youssouf Hadji, counting more than 300 matches under the colors of the club,

Olivier Rouyer Olivier Rouyer (born 1 December 1955) is a retired football striker from France. He earned seventeen international caps (two goals) for the French national team during the late 1970s and early 1980s. A player of AS Nancy, he was a member of the ...

and

Tony Vairelles Tony Vairelles (born 10 April 1973) is a French former professional footballer who played as a forward. Club career A much-travelled centre-forward, the talented Vairelles started his professional career with hometown club AS Nancy before movi ...

. Other players have emerged or illustrated at the club, such as

Tony Cascarino Anthony Guy Cascarino (born 1 September 1962) is a former professional footballer who played as a striker for various British and French clubs and internationally for the Republic of Ireland national team, with whom he competed in UEFA Euro 19 ...

Jean-Michel Moutier Jean-Michel Moutier (born 18 March 1955) is a French former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Career Born in Damelevières, Moutier played for Lunéville, Nancy B, Nancy and Paris Saint-Germain. He later worked in executive ...

Roger Lemerre Roger Léon Maurice Lemerre-Desprez (born 18 June 1941) is a French professional football manager and former player. During his managerial career, he was in charge of the French, Tunisian and Moroccan national teams. He also managed numerous c ...

Aleksandr Zavarov Oleksandr Anatoliyovych Zavarov, also spelt Aleksandr Anatoljević Zavarov ( uk, Олександр Анатолійович Заваров, russian: Заваров, Александр Анатольевич) – (born 26 April 1961 in Luhansk, ...

, Bernard Zénier,

Clément Lenglet Clément Nicolas Laurent Lenglet (born 17 June 1995) is a French professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur on loan from La Liga club Barcelona and the France national team. Lenglet began his car ...

and Michaël Cuisance.

History

Prior to the creation of AS Nancy, the city of Nancy was host to football by

and ''US Frontière''. FC Nancy was formed in 1901, while ''US Frontière'' was founded in 1910. Both clubs were a part of the ''Ligue de Lorraine''. FC Nancy continued to play football through the professional transition. The club achieved very little during its 64 years of existence only winning the second division twice in 1946 and 1958. FC Nancy did reach the final of the

in 1953 and 1962, however, on both appearances, the club lost to

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the N ...

and Saint-Étienne, respectively. In 1965, with the club enduring financial difficulties during the 1963–64 season, mainly due to the club's being abandoned by the city's municipality and its supporters according to its president, Nancy folded shortly before the new season. Supporter asnl

The idea of a new professional club in the city was thought of by Claude Cuny in spring 1964 based on amateur ''Association sportive Lorraine'', formerly known as ''Union sportive Frontière''. Cuny had previously worked with FC Nancy, but left the club prior to its destruction. Cuny is considered one of the leaders of French football mainly because of his innovative ideas and strategies. After forming Nancy, he created the first youth academy of French football. Prior to the club beginning its life as a football club, Cuny devised a strategy to immerse the club into the city's public. First, he sent out over 18,000 letters and petitions to draw interest to the team. Once the public gained notice, Cuny organised friendly matches to raise funds for the club. After accruing enough money, Cuny sought to turn the club professional, and, despite several setbacks, on 16 June 1967, Nancy were granted professional status and inserted into Division 2, the second level of French football. The club's first manager was René Pleimelding, a former French international who played for FC Nancy. Nancy, subsequently, recruited several former FC Nancy players such as Antoine Redin, as well as players from the

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...

such as Michel Lanini, Gérard Braun and Roger Formica. Michel Platini en 1978, 'Argentina 78', Panini figurina n°90

In Nancy's inaugural season of football, the club finished tenth in the league table and reached the Round of 16 in the

. Two seasons later, the club earned promotion to Division 1 and finished in 13th place in its first season in the league. In 1972,

arrived at the club, initially with the club's reserve team. His first full season as a player came in the 1974–75 season whilst the club was playing in the second division, having suffered relegation from Division 1 the previous season. The season was a success for both club and player: Nancy achieved its first major honour winning Division 2, while Platini appeared in 32 league matches and scored 17 goals. In the ensuing three seasons in Division 1, Nancy, led by Platini,

Carlos Curbelo Carlos Luis Curbelo (born March 1, 1980) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Florida's 26th congressional district from 2015 to 2019. In 2018, he was narrowly defeated for re-election by Democrat Debbie Mucarse ...

, Paco Rubio and Philippe Jeannol, finished in the top ten. Platini won the French Player of the Year award in two of those seasons. In 1978, Nancy achieved its highest honour to date after winning the

. In the final, the club faced

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...

and defeated its southern foes 1–0 with Platini scoring the lone goal.

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing Valéry René Marie Georges Giscard d'Estaing (, , ; 2 February 19262 December 2020), also known as Giscard or VGE, was a French politician who served as President of France from 1974 to 1981. After serving as Minister of Finance under prime ...

presented Platini with the trophy to cap off the victory. Nancy's Coupe de France triumph saw the club qualify for

European competition The European Competition is a student competition in which students of all ages submit creative, artistic, or written pieces of work on the activities of the European Union. Tendered by European Movement Germany, it is the oldest student competition ...

for the first time in its short history. The club participated in the 1978–79 edition of the

European Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

and were eliminated in the second round after losing 4–3 on aggregate to Swiss club

Servette Servette is a district of the city of Geneva, Switzerland. The district's name comes from the Latin word for forest, ''silva'', and means "little forest". Its name alludes to Servette's rural past, before Geneva grew beyond its walls and incorpora ...

. The club played most of the season without Platini who was injured. Platini left the club after the season, however most of the club's nucleus remained. In the team's first season without Platini, Nancy finished in 11th place. In the next three seasons, Nancy finished in the top ten. After the 1984 season, Moutier and Rubio became the last of the club's influential players to depart and Nancy suffered a free-fall finishing in the next three seasons. The implosion concluded after the 1986–87 season when Nancy finished in 19th place, thus falling back to Division 2. The only ray of sunshine for the club during this declining stint was the

testimonial match A testimonial match or testimonial game, often referred to simply as a testimonial, is a practice in some sports, particularly in association football in the United Kingdom and South America, where a club has a match to honour a player for servic ...

held for Platini on 23 May 1988 following the players' club and international retirement. That evening, fans were treated to an exhibition that featured Platini, Pelé and

Diego Maradona Diego Armando Maradona (; 30 October 196025 November 2020) was an Argentine professional football player and manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was one of the two joint winners of the F ...

. In the 1988–89 season, Nancy earned promotion back to the first division. However, the club spent the entire decade rotating between Division 1 and Division 2. The club won two second-division titles during this stint and finally earned promotion back to the first division, now called Ligue 1, for the 2005–06 season after winning Ligue 2. In Nancy's first season back in Ligue 1, the club won the Coupe de la Ligue defeating Nice 2–1 in

the final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

. Nancy supporters arrived at the Stade de France courtesy of 11 special trains, while more than 300 buses and thousands of cars from the city also arrived in Paris. The cup victory allowed Nancy to participate in the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

with the club eventually making it to the Round of 32 before losing to

Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk ( uk, Футбольний клуб «Шахтар» Донецьк , short nickname "miners") is a Ukrainian professional football club from the city of Donetsk. In 2014, due to the War in Donbass, the club was f ...

. The first half of the 2007–08 season for Nancy was the club's best ever start to a season in the top division with 35 points after 19 games and sitting in second place. On 4 November 2007, in a match against

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...

, the club celebrated its 40th anniversary of existence with a special event involving many of the club's former players, club officials, presidents, and coaches. After a good second half start, Nancy sat in third place on the final match day of the season. However, the club finished one spot short of qualifying for the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

, losing 3–2 to Rennes, while fourth-placed

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

defeated Strasbourg 4–3 to claim the spot. Nancy still managed to claim the league's best defence, alongside Nice. The 30 goals conceded equalled the club's record achieved in the 1976–77 season. After managing mid-table performances during the following 4 years at the top-flight, the club got relegated in May 2013, finishing only 2 points behind 17th place Ajaccio. Following their relegation, the club nearly got promoted back to the first division, finishing 4th and 3 points shy behind Caen and a spot to the top-flight. Nancy remained a strong candidate for promotion during the entire 2014–15 season, but ultimately finished 5th, 6 points behind 3rd place

Angers Angers (, , ) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the pr ...

AS Nancy is the rival of

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand ...

, a city in Lorraine. The match between the two teams is one of the most dangerous encounters in the French football, often classified at the highest level of risk matches because of clashes between supporters of the two camps. This match is a regional derby for the supremacy of a city. The following year, the club still was a strong candidate for promotion. Finally, on 25 April 2016, after 3 years of absence, the club assured promotion to Ligue 1 with 3 games to spare by beating

Sochaux Sochaux () is a commune in the Doubs department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France. Geography Sochaux lies east of Montbéliard, and southeast of Paris. Population Inhabitants are known as ''Sochaliens''. Economy S ...

1–0 on match day 35. On match day 37, they beat

Evian Evian ( , ; , stylized as evian) is a French company that bottles and commercialises mineral water from several sources near Évian-les-Bains, on the south shore of Lake Geneva. It produces over 2 billion plastic bottles per year. Today, Evia ...

1–0 to clinch the Ligue 2 title, their fifth second division crown after 1975, 1990, 1998 and 2005. In December 2020, after Chien Lee, PMG, Partners Path Capital and Krishen Sud acquired AS Nancy, the club appointed Gauthier Ganaye as CEO. In May 2021, AS Nancy appointed

Daniel Stendel Daniel Stendel (born 4 April 1974) is a German professional Association football, football manager and former player, who currently is in charge of Hannover 96 II. Stendel played as a Striker (association football), striker in his native Germany ...

as head coach. In September 2021, Stendel was dismissed as head coach after failing to win any of the first ten league games of the season. Finale OGCN-ASNL

Home Stadium

Opened on August 8, 1926, the Stadium originally known as the University Stadium or Essey Bridge Sports Park, was originally intended for the Lorrain University Stadium. Fully devoted to the cause of FC Nancy, Marcel Picot, a hatter installed in the 1930s in the city centre, will become president of the club and leave his name to the compound. The complete renovation of the Marcel Picot stadium, led by the Bernt-Morillon-Thouveny agency on behalf of the Urban Community, took place between 1999 and 2003. It increased the capacity of the stadium to 20,087 seats and covered. Another expansion project is planned, bringing the stadium's capacity to 32,000 seats.

Players

Current squad

Reserve squad

''As of 1 February 2022.''

Notable former players

Below are the notable former players who have represented Nancy in

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

and international competition since the club's foundation in 1967. To appear in the section below, a player must have played in at least 100 official matches for the club. ''For a complete list of Nancy players, see :AS Nancy Lorraine players'' * Éric Bertrand *

Frédéric Biancalani Frédéric Biancalani (born 21 July 1974) is a French former professional footballer who played as a defender. Career Biancalani was born in Villerupt, France. He came from the youth academy at Nancy and played his first professional match in ...

* Stéphane Capiaux * Bernard Caron *

Albert Cartier Albert Cartier (born 22 November 1960) is a French professional football manager and former player. Coaching career Cartier was fired by FC Brussels in January 2008 for bad results and did not reach a new agreement with RAEC Mons. On 12 Januar ...

* Didier Casini * Jean-Claude Cloët *

* Gaston Curbelo * Paul Fischer * Roger Formica * Charles Gasperini *

Franck Gava Franck Gava (born 3 February 1970) is a French former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. Club career Gava was born in Montargis, Loiret. He emerged through AS Nancy-Lorraine's youth system, making his professional d ...

Bruno Germain Bruno Germain, (born 28 April 1960) is a former footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. In his playing career he played for seven French clubs, most notably Olympique Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain, being capped once for France. Germa ...

Massadio Haïdara Massadio Haïdara (born 2 December 1992) is a professional footballer who plays as a left-back for Ligue 1 club Lens. Born in France, he plays for the Mali national team. Club career Nancy Haïdara made his professional debut on 11 December 201 ...

* Vincent Hognon * Philippe Jeannol * Cédric Lécluse * Éric Martin * Sylvain Matrisciano * Laurent Moracchini * Youssef Moustaid *

* Pierre Neubert * Benjamin Nicaise * Jean Palka * Jacky Perdrieau * Didier Philippe *

* Sébastien Puygrenier *

Éric Rabésandratana Éric Rabésandratana (born 18 September 1972) is a professional football manager and former player who is the caretaker manager of the Madagascar national team. He played mainly as a defensive midfielder and could also operate as a central de ...

* Jean-Pierre Raczynski *

Olivier Rambo Olivier Rambo (born 8 September 1974) is a French footballer who currently plays as an attacking midfielder for AS Illzach Modenheim. While playing for AS Nancy he made 78 appearances in Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber ...

* Paco Rubio *

* André Luiz *

Djamel Bakar Djamel Bakar (born 6 April 1989) is a Comorian professional footballer who most recently played for the F91 Dudelange and Comoros national football team as a striker. Club career On 6 January 2008, Bakar scored three goals for AS Monaco FC agai ...

* Tomi Ozkan *

* Youssef Hadji * Monsef Zerka * Ryszard Tarasiewicz *

Issiar Dia Issiar Dia (born 8 June 1987) is a professional footballer who most recently played as a winger for Turkish club Yeni Malatyaspor. Born in France, he represented Senegal at international level. Club career Nancy In summer 2006, Dia joined AS Na ...

* Pape Diakhaté *

Oleksandr Zavarov Oleksandr Anatoliyovych Zavarov, also spelt Aleksandr Anatoljević Zavarov ( uk, Олександр Анатолійович Заваров, russian: Заваров, Александр Анатольевич) – (born 26 April 1961 in Luhansk, ...

Pablo Correa Pablo Alejandro Correa Velázquez (born 14 March 1967) is a Uruguayan former football player. After his retirement as a player, he became the head coach of three French football clubs. Playing career Correa started his footballing career as a ...

* Rubén Umpiérrez

Club officials

*Chairman: Chien Lee *CEO: Gauthier Ganaye *General Secretary: Pascal Rivière *Manager:

Managerial history

Honours

Domestic

**Winners: 1977–78 * Coupe de la Ligue **Winners: 2005–06 * Ligue 2 **Champions (5): 1974–75, 1989–90, 1997–98, 2004–05, 2015–16 *

Coupe Gambardella The Coupe Gambardella is a French football cup competition held between the under-18s of the French football clubs, organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). The cup is regarded as an opportunity for young hopefuls to showcase their s ...

**Runners-up: 1973–74

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nancy AS Association football clubs established in 1967 1967 establishments in France Football clubs in Grand Est Ligue 1 clubs