Sporting Circle Fola Esch (), usually abbreviated to Fola Esch or simply Fola, is a professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in

Esch-sur-Alzette Esch-sur-Alzette (, ; ; or ''Esch an der Alzig'') is a city in Luxembourg and the country's List of communes of Luxembourg by population, second-most populous commune, with a population of 36,625 inhabitants, . It lies in the south-west of the ...

, in south-western

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

. They play their home games at

Stade Émile Mayrisch Stade Émile Mayrisch is a football and athletics stadium, in Esch-sur-Alzette, in south-western Luxembourg. The stadium has a capacity of 1,632. Original capacity before stadium became all-seater was 3,826. It is named after Luxembourgian industr ...

, in the south of the city, which they share with their sister

athletics club A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

CA Fola Esch Athletics Club Fola Esch () is an athletics club in Esch-sur-Alzette, in south-western Luxembourg. Founded in 1950, the club is based at Stade Émile Mayrisch, which it shares with its sister football club, CS Fola Esch Sporting Circle Fola E ...

History

Founded in 1906 by the English language teacher Jean Roeder, Fola was the first football club in Luxembourg. During its heyday, it was the best club in the country, winning four National Division championships and two

Luxembourg Cup The Luxembourg Cup () is the national Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in Luxembourgian Association football, football. It was first held in 1922, and has been held annually since, with the exception of the four seasons du ...

s between 1918 and 1924. Fola won another championship in 1930 and the

in 1955, but had since this time lost its place in Luxembourg's top flight. Fola stubbornly rejected a merger with its larger neighbours,

Jeunesse Esch Jeunesse Esch (full name ''Association Sportive la Jeunesse d'Esch/Alzette'') is a professional football club based in Esch-sur-Alzette, in south-western Luxembourg. The side play in the National Division, the highest league in the country, and ...

, during the wave of consolidation in the 1990s. In 2004–05, Fola were relegated to the third tier of Luxembourgish football, but were promoted the following season. In 2006–07 they finished third, qualifying for a promotion play-off, which they lost to

Victoria Rosport Football Club Victoria Rosport is a football club based in Rosport, eastern Luxembourg. In 2005, Rosport met IFK Göteborg in the first round of the Intertoto Cup. Because Rosport's stadium was not up to UEFA standards, the match was played at St ...

. In August 2007, Fola pulled off a transfer coup by signing former

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

midfielder

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, Morocc ...

. In 2008, the club managed to secure second place in the championship, granting them promotion to the Fortis League (National Division, the top league in the country, renamed BGL League in March 2009 due to the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

). In May 2013, CS Fola Esch won the championship in the

BGL Ligue The National Division (, , ), known as the BGL Ligue for sponsorship reasons, is the highest football league in Luxembourg. Until 2011, it was known as the BGL Ligue, after the Luxembourg Football Federation managed to seal a sponsorship deal w ...

with a historic 5–1 win against their rivals,

in the 25th match of the season. The club had a gap of 83 years since their last championship. Stefano Bensi scored 20 goals during this season. Fola participated in the second qualifying round of the Champions League 2013–14, but lost to

Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb (), commonly referred to as simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo play their home matches at Stadion Maksimir. They are the most successful club in Cr ...

0–5 in the first leg (at home) and 0–1 in the second leg (away). In 2015, Fola won the championship again, after finishing second in 2014. In 2016 they again finished second with an equal number of points with the champions, F91 Dudelange. In 2016 CS Fola Esch, celebrated their 110th birthday, and also became a member of the exclusive Club of Pioneers, as the oldest football club of Luxembourg.

History

*1906: Club founded as ''Football and Lawn Tennis Club Esch'' *1907: Adopts current colours of red and white stripes *1910: Absorbs FC Nerva, becoming ''Cercle sportif Fola Esch'' *1918: Wins first championship title *1924: Wins the Double *1930: Wins last championship title for the next 83 years *1935: Moves to current stadium,

*1955: Wins Luxembourg Cup, last title before a long lean period *1973: First participation in European competition (season 1973–74) *2013: Wins first championship since 83 years, followed by another champion title in 2015 *2017: First qualification to the second round and to the third round in European competition

Honours

National Division *Champions (8): 1917–18, 1919–20, 1921–22, 1923–24, 1929–30,

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, 2014–15,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

*Runners-up (10): 1916–17, 1918–19, 1920–21, 1928–29, 1948–49, 1953–54, 1954–55,

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, 2013–14, 2018–19

*Winners: 1922–23, 1923–24, 1954–55 *Runners-up: 1972–73, 2016–17

European competition

Matches

Current squad

(''on loan from

F91 Dudelange F91 Dudelange (; , ) is a Luxembourgish professional Association football, football club based in Dudelange which plays in the Luxembourg National Division. It was formed in 1991 as a merger between three teams in the town: Alliance Dudelange, ...

'') (''on loan from Wiltz 71'')

Former coaches

References

External links

*
CS Fola Esch
at football-lineups.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Fola Esch Football clubs in Luxembourg Sports clubs and teams in Esch-sur-Alzette Association football clubs established in 1906 1906 establishments in Luxembourg