RC Strasbourg

Football club infobox
clubname = RC Strasbourg


fullname = Racing Club de Strasbourg
nickname = "Racing"
founded = 1906
ground = Stade de la Meinau
Strasbourg, France
capacity = 29,230
chairman = Philippe Ginestet
manager = Jean-Marc Furlan
league = Ligue 2
season = 2007-08
position = Ligue 1, 19th (relegated)
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Racing Club de Strasbourg, commonly known as RC Strasbourg, is a French football team, playing in the city of Strasbourg. They currently play in Ligue 2, the second tier of French football, having been relegated from Ligue 1 at the conclusion of the 2007-08 season.

History

The club was founded in 1906 by a group of youngsters in the Neudorf neighborhood of what was then Straßburg, Elsaß, in Germany, but is today Strasbourg, Alsace, in France. With the help of their primary-school teacher, they formed a team called "Fußball Club Neudorf". On 12 December, 1908 the club was renamed "1. FC Neudorf". In 1914, FC Neudorf rented the Haemmerle Garten for 300 marks a year, a location that would later become the site of the Stade de la Meinau. In the aftermath of World War I the territory of Alsace-Lorraine came to France and on 11 January 1918 the club adopted the name "Racing-Club Strasbourg-Neudorf" until becoming simply "Racing Club Strasbourg" later in the year reflecting regulations that restricted the use of the German language and placenames in the region. "RC" joined French competition and by 1926 had captured its first title as champions of Alsace.

On June 10, 1933, at the "restaurant de la Bourse", the club made the jump to the professional ranks. Several months later, they reached Division 1 for the first time, after a pair of two-leg matches, first against "FC Mulhouse" (0:0 and 3:1), and then against "AS Saint-Étienne" (2:0 and 4:4). "Racing" earned decent results in the mid-30s with a second place finish in 1934-35 and a third place finish the next season.

The Alsace region was reconquered by Germany soon after the outbreak of World War II and in August 1940 the team took up play as "Rasensportclub Straßburg" in the Gauliga Elsaß, a top flight division in German football. "RSC" captured their division in 1941 and participated in the national finals where they were put out in the first round by "FC Mülhausen". The team earned second place results in each of the following two seasons and made an appearance in the opening round of the DFB Pokal (German Cup) in 1942.

Allied armies retook Alsace in 1944 and the club quickly resumed play as "Racing Club Strasbourg". They remained in first division competition until, at the end of the 1948-49 season, it appeared the side would be relegated. However, neighbouring club "SR Colmar" liquidated their professional team, leaving room for "Racing" to stay up.

That reprieve was only temporary. Following the worst ever season in the clubs history in 1951-52, "Racing" was sent down to Division 2. The "Bleus" earned a measure of redemption in defeating "US Valenciennes" 3:0 in the French Cup final to claim their first major trophy. They repeated as cup winners in 1966 and then went on to several unremarked years of play. On April 4, 1970 they merged with "AS Sportive Cultureele de la Meinau" to briefly become "Racing Club Strasbourg Meinau". On 3 June they entered into a second union, this time with "CS des Pierrots 1922 Strasbourg", to form "Le Racing Pierrots Strasbourg Meinau". The club spent the early 70s moving up and down between first and second division play. On 15 October 1976 they assumed their old identity as "Racing Club Strasbourg".

The end of the 1976-77 season saw Racing promoted to Ligue 1 once again. They earned a third place finish and just two seasons later finished atop the Division 1 on 56 points with an undefeated home record. They were Champions of France for the first and only time in their history, and advanced to the quarter-finals of the European Champions Cup the next season, where they were eliminated by "Ajax Amsterdam".

Recent history

The "Bleu"'s success was short-lived, and after several seasons of middling results, "Racing" was returned to second tier play in 1986 where they remained through the balance of the decade. After defeating "Stade Rennais FC" in 1991 by a score of 4;1, "Strasbourg" returned to the top flight. In 1995 they made a losing appearance in the final of the French Cup, but still merited a place in 1996 European Cup play. The team reached the last sixteen, where they were put out by Italian giants "AC Milan".

In 1998 "RC" showed some promise of earning a good result early in the season, but ultimately settled for a 9th place finish. That same year, the IMG Group was chosen by the municipality to take control of the club. The players trained by the captain of the 1979 French champions, Jacky Duguépéroux, went on to capture the League Cup by defeating "FC Girondins de Bordeaux". A good UEFA Cup run followed that victory. After a successful qualification round against "Glasgow Rangers" and "Liverpool F.C.", "RC" defeated "Inter Milan" 2:0 at home in Meinau, but fell 0:3 in the away leg.

"Racing" remained a competitive side and in 2001 captured their third French Cup in a final versus "Amiens SC".

After a season in "purgatory" in 2001/2002, Racing re-took its place among the football elite in the Hexagon by finishing runners-up in Ligue 2.

The 2002/2003 season, in which Racing would come to finish in an encouraging 13th place, would be marked by the withdrawal of the IMG group and the arrival of a new and ambitious group led by Egon Gindorf, who succeeded Patrick Proisy as president, and by Marc Keller, named General Director.

Placed under the title "recapture", the 2003/2004 season needed to allow Racing to stabilize the club amongst the national elite and to win the favor of the Alsatian public once again.

In 2005, Racing won their second domestic trophy in four years when they beat Caen 2-1 in the final of the League Cup, a feat which provided them with a passport to the 2005/6 UEFA Cup.

Following the 2005-06 season, Racing were relegated into the Second Division. Jean-Pierre Papin took over from Jacky Duguépéroux, signing a two-year deal to coach the club as they look to return to the top flight. [http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=367398&cc=5739] They were successful in their quest, taking the third promotion place by one point over Amiens SC. Despite this success, however, Papin resigned as manager, citing internal relationship problems. [ [http://www.uefa.com/footballeurope/news/kind=2/newsid=549952.html Papin leaves Strasbourg post - UEFA.com] ] His successor is Jean-Marc Furlan.

Players

Current squad

"As of August 11, 2008."Fs player|no=|nat=China|name=Fang Mei|pos=DF On trialFs player|no=|nat=China|name=Yang Mang|pos=FW On trial

Out on loan

Fs player|no=14|nat=France|name=Romain Gasmi|pos=MF "(to Southampton)Fs player|no=—|nat=Cameroon|name=Hervé Tum|pos=FW "(to Bursaspor)"Fs player|no=—|nat=France|name=Jérémy Perbet|pos=FW "(to Angers)"

Notable former players

The players mentioned below have achieved notability either by playing at least 100 matches with the team or by being capped by their respective national selection. For a complete list of RC Strasbourg players, see .

;flagicon|FRA France

*Teddy Bertin
*José Cobos
*Olivier Dacourt
*Martin Djetou
*Raymond Domenech
*Dominique Dropsy
*Jacky Duguépéroux
*Richard Dutruel
*Olivier Echouafni
*Rémi Garde
*Xavier Gravelaine
*Gilbert Gress
*Brahim Hemdani
*Marc Keller
*Lucien Laurent
*Frank Lebœuf
*Ulrich Le Pen
*Peguy Luyindula
*Corentin Martins
*Pascal Nouma
*Mickaël Pagis
*Yvon Pouliquen
*Philippe Raschke
*David Regis
*Olivier Rouyer
*Frank Sauzée
*Alexander Schwartz
*Didier Six

;flagicon|FRA France (cont'd.)
*Rémy Vercoutre
*Arsène Wenger

;flagicon|Austria Austria
*Ernst Stojaspal
*Mario Haas

;flagicon|Germany Germany
*Reinhard Libuda
*Peter Reichert
*Oskar Rohr
*Wolfgang Rolff

;flagicon|Latvia Latvia
*Aleksandrs Vanags

;flagicon|Nigeria Nigeria
*Godwin Okpara

;flagicon|Paraguay Paraguay
*José Luis Chilavert

;flagicon|Russia Russia
*Aleksandr Mostovoi

;flagicon|Senegal Senegal
*Mamadou Niang

;flagicon|Serbia Serbia
*Danijel Ljuboja

;flagicon|Slovakia Slovakia
*Alexander Vencel

;flagicon|South Korea South Korea
*Jung-Won Seo

;flagicon|Yugoslavia Yugoslavia
*Ivica Osim

Honours

League

*Ligue 1 champions (1): 1979
*Ligue 2 champions (2): 1977, 1988
*Ligue 2 promotion: 2007

Cups

*Coupe de France winners (3): 1951, 1966, 2001
*Coupe de la Ligue winners (2): 1997, 2005
*UEFA Intertoto Cup winners (1): 1995

Records

*Largest victory: 8-1 (v. RC Paris, 1946/47) and 7-0 (v. OGC Nice, 1962/64)
*Largest defeat: 0-8 (v. Limoges, 1959/60)
*Record appearances: René Hauss (421)

Managerial history

External links

* [http://www.rcstrasbourg.fr/ Official website] fr icon

References