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Le Mans FC

(Redirected from Le Mans UC 72)

Le Mans Football Club (French pronunciation: [ləmɑ̃]; commonly referred to as Le Mans FC, formerly known as Le Muc) is a French professional football club based in Le Mans. The club was founded in 1985 as a result of a merger under the name Le Mans Union Club 72. In 2010, Le Mans changed its name to Le Mans FC to coincide with the re-modeling of the club, which includes moving into a new stadium, MMArena, which opened in January 2011.[1] The stadium is based in the interior of the Circuit de la Sarthe, a famous circuit in the city.

Le Mans
Full nameLe Mans Football Club
Nickname(s)MUC 72
Les Mucistes
Les Sang et Or (The Blood and Golds)
Founded12 June 1985; 39 years ago (1985-06-12)
GroundMMArena
Capacity25,064
ChairmanThierry Gomez
ManagerPatrick Videira
LeagueChampionnat National
2023–24Championnat National, 5th of 18
Websitehttps://www.lemansfc.fr

The club were controversially relegated from 2019–20 Ligue 2 when the season was terminated early due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

History

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Le Mans Sports Club were founded in 1900, but it was not until 1908 that a football club existed within it. Le Mans qualified for the Championnat de la France in 1910, but were heavily overturned by Saint-Servan. Gaining a huge reputation up to World War I, Le Mans SC plunged into obscurity by World War II before joining the war league in 1942.

The football section of Union Sportive du Mans was founded in 1903.

The current club was formed as a result of a merger between Union Sportive du Mans and Le Mans Sports Club, on 12 June 1985. Upon its foundation, former football player Bernard Deferrez was installed as manager. Le Mans UC spent the majority of its infancy in Ligue 2. In the 2003–04 season, the club achieved promotion to Ligue 1 for the first time, but were immediately relegated. Le Mans returned to the first division for the 2005–06 season and successfully remained in the league for the next four seasons. The club suffered relegation back to Ligue 2 in the 2009–10 season. Midway through the campaign, on 2 December 2009, Le Mans announced that it was changing its name from Le Mans Union Club 72 to Le Mans FC.

Le Mans moved to the MMArena midway through the 2010–11 season, comfortably in the promotion spots for a return to Ligue 1, but a bad run sees them finish 4th, missing promotion on goal difference. The failure to achieve promotion is costly, as the club sees its payroll limited by the DNCG. Many players left, and relegation was only narrowly avoided. The club survived by appeal an attempt by DNCG to relegate them to Championnat National. The following season they were relegated on the field, and a long summer of legal battles saw them liquidated and reforming in Maine (province) Division d'Honneur as an amateur club.[2]

Promotion to Championnat de France Amateur 2 was achieved on the first attempt, and promotion from that division was only narrowly missed in 2014–15 and 2015–16. On the third attempt, promotion to the new Championnat National 2 was obtained in 2016–17, when Le Mans finished as one of the best runners up in the competition. Le Mans was promoted for the second season in a row winning Group D and being promoted to the 2018–19 Championnat National, the club would achieve a third consecutive promotion after successfully overcoming Gazélec Ajaccio in the Ligue 2 relegation play-off final with a 3-2 aggregate score, swapping places with the Corsican club who, only three years before had been members of the top-flight themselves.[3]

The club were in 19th place in Ligue 2 when the season was terminated early due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the club supporting an LFP proposal which would have seen Ligue 2 operate temporarily with 22 clubs, meaning they would stay in the division, the FFF ruled on 27 May 2020 that they were to be relegated to Championnat National.[4]

Players

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Current squad

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As of 1 August 2024.[5][6]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
1 GK   FRA Ewan Hatfout
5 DF   MTQ Harold Voyer
6 MF   FRA Edwin Quarshie
7 FW   COM Zaïd Amir
8 DF   FRA Alexandre Lauray
9 FW   FRA Antoine Rabillard
11 FW   FRA Erwan Colas
12 DF   FRA Anthony Ribelin
13 DF   MLI Tiécoro Keita
15 FW   COD Arnold Vula
16 GK   FRA Nicolas Kocik
17 DF   FRA Samuel Yohou
18 DF   FRA Zakary Lamgahez
No. Pos. Nation Player
19 DF   FRA Nathan Dekoke
21 DF   FRA Théo Eyoum
22 FW   FRA Lucas Calodat
23 MF   FRA Maxime Nonnenmacher
23 DF   FRA Mike Bettinger
24 MF   FRA Ali Ouchen
25 FW   SEN Dame Guèye
26 FW   FRA Brice Oggad
27 MF   FRA Martin Rossignol
30 GK   FRA Augustin Delbecque
33 MF   FRA Gabin Bernardeau
34 DF   FRA Jérémie Matumona
— DF   FRA Noa Boissé

Notable players

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Below are the notable former players who have represented Le Mans and its predecessors in league and international competition since the club's foundation in 1985. 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 Le Mans players, see Category:Le Mans FC players

Former managers

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Honours

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  • Division d'Honneur Ouest
    • Winners: 1961, 1965
  • Division d'Honneur Maine
    • Winners: 2014
  • Coupe Gambardella

References

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  1. ^ Le MUC 72 devient LEMANS FC. Archived 4 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ^ "L'épopée Sang et OR" (in French). Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 5 August 2016.
  3. ^ "Actualité – LE MANS FC est en Ligue 2 !". www.lemansfc.fr. Archived from the original on 10 June 2019. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  4. ^ "La Ligue 2 avec 22 clubs refusée par la FFF" (in French). foot-national.com. 27 May 2020. Archived from the original on 28 May 2020. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
  5. ^ "Le Mans FC squad". Soccerway. Perform Group. Archived from the original on 26 April 2016. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  6. ^ "Équipe National" (in French). Le Mans FC. Archived from the original on 9 October 2017. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  7. ^ "Le Mans - Ray : "Enclencher une nouvelle dynamique"" (in French). foot-national.com. 2 March 2020. Archived from the original on 3 March 2020. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
  8. ^ "Le Mans : Reginald Ray s'en va (off)" (in French). foot-national.com. 28 May 2020.
  9. ^ "National. Le Mans FC a trouvé son entraineur" (in French). footamateur.fr. 1 June 2020. Archived from the original on 10 June 2020. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
  10. ^ "National. Le Mans FC se sépare de Didier Ollé-Nicolle" (in French). footamateur.fr. 17 May 2021. Archived from the original on 17 May 2021. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
 
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