Le Mans FC

Le Mans
Full name	Le Mans Football Club
Nickname(s)	MUC 72; Les Mucistes; Les Sang et Or (The Blood and Golds)
Founded	12 June 1985
Ground	MMArena
Capacity	25,064
Chairman	Thierry Gomez
Manager	Réginald Ray
League	Championnat National
2022–23	Championnat National, 12th of 18
Website	Club website
Home colours	Away colours

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.

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

History

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

Current squad

As of 15 August, 2023.^[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	Mathieu Coutadeur
7	FW	COM	Zaïd Amir
8	DF	FRA	Alexandre Lauray
9	FW	FRA	Antoine Rabillard
10	MF	FRA	Yoann Le Méhauté
11	MF	FRA	Makan Aïko
12	DF	FRA	Anthony Ribelin
13	MF	FRA	Ugo Raghouber (on loan from LOSC Lille)
16	GK	FRA	Nicolas Kocik
17	DF	FRA	Samuel Yohou
18	MF	ALG	Mehdi Boussaïd


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
19	MF	FRA	Alexandre Vincent
20	DF	FRA	Hugo Vargas-Ríos
21	DF	FRA	Théo Eyoum
22	DF	FRA	Lilian Njoh
23	DF	FRA	Mike Bettinger
24	MF	FRA	Paul Lehoux
25	FW	SEN	Dame Guèye
26	FW	FRA	Erwan Colas
27	MF	FRA	Martin Rossignol
28	DF	FRA	Jonas Smith
29	MF	FRA	Edwin Quarshie
30	GK	FRA	Augustin Delbecque
31	FW	FRA	Adam Hammoudi

Out on loan

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


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player

Notable players

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

Mony Braustein (1945–46)
? (1946–47)
Émile Rummelhardt (1947–51)
Gaston Choulet (1951–52)
Gabriel Corsaletti (1952–53)
Camille Libar (1953–57)
André Grillon (1957–64)
René Dereuddre (1964–76)
Alain Laurier (1976–79)
Michel Rodriguez (1979–81)
André Guttierez (1981–85)
Bernard Deferrez (1985–86)
Christian Gourcuff (Jun 86 – Jan 89)
Christian Létard (Jan 1989 – Jan 94)
Thierry Froger (Jan 1994 – May 97)
Slavo Muslin (Jun 1997 – Nov 97)
Marc Westerloppe (Nov 1997 – Nov 2000)
Alain Pascalou (Nov 2000 – Dec 2000)
Thierry Goudet (Dec 2000 – Feb 2004)
Daniel Jeandupeux (Feb 2004 – Dec 2004)
Frédéric Hantz (Dec 2004–07)
Rudi Garcia (2007–08)
Yves Bertucci (2008–09)
Daniel Jeandupeux (2009)
Arnaud Cormier (2009)
Paulo Duarte (2009)
Arnaud Cormier (2009–2011)
Denis Zanko (2011–2013)
Régis Beunardeau (2013)
Stéphane Guédet (2013–2014)
Alexandre Clément (2014–2015)
Richard Déziré (2015–2020)
Réginald Ray (2020)^[7]^[8]
Didier Ollé-Nicolle (2020–2021)^[9]^[10]
Cris (2021–2022)

Honours

Division d'Honneur Ouest
- Winners: 1961, 1965
Division d'Honneur Maine
- Winners: 2014
Coupe Gambardella
- Winners: 2004

References

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

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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. Retrieved 4 June 2019.

[4] "La Ligue 2 avec 22 clubs refusée par la FFF" (in French). foot-national.com. 27 May 2020.

[5] "Le Mans FC squad". Soccerway. Perform Group. Retrieved 21 December 2020.

[6] "Équipe National" (in French). Le Mans FC. Retrieved 21 December 2020.

[7] "Le Mans - Ray : "Enclencher une nouvelle dynamique"" (in French). foot-national.com. 2 March 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.

[10] "National. Le Mans FC se sépare de Didier Ollé-Nicolle" (in French). footamateur.fr. 17 May 2021.

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Division 2 / Ligue 2 seasons
Division 2 (1933–2002)	1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02
Ligue 2 (2002–present)	2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24
List of French second division champions

Championnat National
2023–24 clubs	Avranches Châteauroux Cholet Dijon Épinal GOAL FC Le Mans Marignane GCB Martigues Nancy Nîmes Niort Orléans Red Star Rouen Sochaux Versailles Villefranche
Former clubs	AC Ajaccio Alès Alfortville Amiens Angers Angoulême Annecy Arles CA Bastia SC Bastia Bayonne Beaucaire Beauvais Belfort Besançon Béziers Borgo Boulogne Bourg-en-Bresse Bourges 18 Brest Calais Cannes Carquefou Cassis Carnoux Charleville Chambly Châtellerault Cherbourg Clermont Colmar Colomiers Concarneau Créteil Drancy Dunkerque Entente SSG Evian TG Évry Fréjus Saint-Raphaël Gap Gazélec Ajaccio Grenoble Gueugnon Guingamp Hyères Istres La Roche-sur-Yon Laval Le Poiré-sur-Vie Le Puy Les Herbiers Libourne St-Seurin Louhans-Cuiseaux Luçon Lusitanos Luzenac Lyon La Duchère Marignane Gignac Marseille Consolat Metz Moulins Mulhouse Noisy-le-Sec Pacy Paris 13 Atletico Paris FC Pau Plabennec Stade Poitevin Quevilly Quevilly-Rouen Raon-l'Étape RC France Reims Rodez Romorantin Roye Saint-Denis Saint-Leu Saint-Priest Sedan Sète Stade Briochin Strasbourg Thouars Toulon Toulouse Tours Trélissac Troyes Uzès Valence Valenciennes Vannes Villemomble Viry-Châtillon Wasquehal Yzeure
Seasons	1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24

Authority control databases
International	VIAF
National	France BnF data
Other	IdRef