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Lille OSC

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Lille Olympique Sporting Club is a French football club, based in the northern city of Lille founded in 1944 from the merger of the Olympique Lillois (founded in 1902) and the SC Fives (founded in 1901). After some glorious years in the aftermath of WWII, Lille have often lived in the shadow of local rival RC Lens when it comes to both performances and local popularity. The intense rivalry between the two clubs can also be traced back to the social and economical backgrounds of the two cities, Lille OSC being the club of the large "bourgeois" city of Lille, capital of the French Flanders, with RC Lens coming from the more modest medium sized miners' town of Lens where football is the only escape for many of the club's supporters.

However, since their return to the French Ligue 1 in 2000, after 3 seasons in Ligue 2, Lille's results have generally bettered those of their local rivals, with two Champions League participations in 2002 and 2005 and a victory in the Intertoto Cup in 2004. In the 2004/05 Ligue 1 campaign, Lille stunned many by finishing an excellent second place in the table by the end of the season, ahead of the likes of AS Monaco, Olympique Marseille and of course their local rivals, Lens. A title challenge had even been mounted against Olympique Lyon though it was to be a brief one despite beating them in their home game.

Lille however automatically qualified for the UEFA Champions League group stages, and hoped to make a good impression in Europe by progressing through the groups. On November 2, 2005 they recorded one of the greatest results in their history by defeating former champions and heavy favourites Manchester United in the Champions League group phase. However, Lille were only able to pick up one point in their final two matches. They parachuted into the UEFA Cup finishing third in their Group leaving Manchester United behind in fourth place. Lille's UEFA cup run finished at the quarter finals stage, their opponent and ultimate winners of the competition FC Sevilla going throuh 2-1 on aggregate.

Former coaches include Georges Heylens (1984-1989), a former Belgian international player, Jacques Santini (1989-92), who managed France between 2002 and 2004, Bruno Metsu (1992-93), who managed Senegal in the 2002 World Cup, Pierre Mankowski (1993-1994), who is the current assistant coach of the French national team and Vahid Halilhodžić (1998-2002), who can be credited with the club's revival in the late nineties and early noughts.

The current coach, Claude Puel, won the French league with Monaco in 2000 before joining Lille in 2002. Thanks to his successes with the club, Puel has been approached by FC Porto to replace Jose Mourinho and Olympique Lyon to replace Paul Le Guen, he is also regularly approached by his former club AS Monaco where he played for 17 years.

Contents

Achievements

Statistics

As of March 28, 2006

Current Squad

As of March 20, 2006

Players out on loan

Famous players

External links

Ligue 1
Auxerre | Bordeaux | Le Mans | Lens | Lille | Lorient | Lyon | Marseille | Monaco | Nancy | Nantes
Nice | PSG | Rennes | Sochaux | Saint-Étienne | Sedan | Toulouse | Troyes | Valenciennes

2003-4 season | 2004-5 season | 2005-6 season | 2006-7 season

 

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