RC Lens
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Racing Club de Lens is a French football club which plays in the northern city of Lens, in the Pas-de-Calais département. Its nickname, sang et or (literally, 'blood and gold'), comes from its traditional colors of red and gold. It was founded in 1905 as Racing Club Lensois, but was not officially registered until 1906 as Racing Club de Lens. Lens originally played in green (as the club's seat was located "Place Verte", literally Green Square) and black (for the coal dug in the area) stripes. Between 1908 and 1910, they used black and red quartered shirts, then an all black shirt bearing the three white letters R.C.L., a cheaper kit for a poor club. The club's activities were silenced by WWI. In 1919, it restarted as Union Sportive du Foyer Franco-Américain and played in sky blue. Finally, late in 1923 chairman Pierre Moglia was inspired to choose the colours of the Spanish flag after someone from the club remarked that the ruins of the Saint-Léger church they happened to be walking by that night were the last remains of the Spanish occupation in the seventeenth century. Lens played their first match with their new colours when the Stade Municipal was inaugurated in 1924. For a long time, the huge influx of Polish miners between the two world wars provided Lens with a great pool of talent, reflected in the names of many players. More recently, they have turned to Africa for their recruitment.
The club has long marketed itself as a regional club rather than a town-based outfit, and has become noted for its strong support across its region, despite the fact that a second top-level team, Lille OSC, is located in nearby Lille. The club's ground, Stade Félix Bollaert, which hosted six games in the 1998 World Cup, seats 41,233 — more than the population of the city (about 36,200 inhabitants), although Lens is at the center of a considerably more populous area. With around 35,000 supporters turning out for each home game in 2004-05, RC Lens's average attendance was only fourth to the clubs from France's three biggest cities, Olympique de Marseille, Paris Saint-Germain and Olympique Lyonnais. The club also has a reputation for having the country's best supporters.
In recent years, Lens have been competitive in the top level of French football, winning the league in the 1997-98 season, finishing second in 2001-02 and winning the Coupe de la Ligue in 2000. In 2005 Lens succeeded in winning the Intertoto Cup to qualify into the UEFA Cup. After an average 2004/05 Ligue 1 campaign, in which local rivals Lille OSC finished a surprising second and outperfomed them for once, Lens expect a finish in the top six for the 2005/06 campaign but still probably second best to Lille. Unfortunately, they failed to get a place in the last 16 of the UEFA Cup going down to Italy's Udinese (0-3, 1-0).
Former coaches include two ex France coaches: Gérard Houllier (1982-85) managed France between July 1992 and November 1993, and Roger Lemerre (second half of the 1996-97 season, then as assistant coach 1997-98), who managed France between July 1998 and July 2002.
Three Lens players won the gold medal in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games: defender Didier Sénac, as well as strikers François Brisson and Daniel Xuereb who scored a goal apiece in France's triumph over Brazil 2-0 in the final at the Pasadena Rose Bowl in front of a 103,000 crowd.C
Honours
- Ligue 1
- * Winners (1): 1998
- * Runners-up (4): 1956, 1957, 1977, 2002
- Ligue 2
- * Winners (3): 1937, 1949, 1973
- French Cup
- * Runners-up (3): 1948, 1975, 1998
- French League Cup
- * Winners (1): 1999
- Coupe Drago
- * Winners (4): 1959, 1960, 1965, 1966
- UEFA Cup
- * Semi-finalists (1): 2000
- UEFA Intertoto Cup
- * Winners (1): 2005
Current Squad
As of June 26, 2006
Squad change during 06/07 season
In:- Grégory Vignal Signed From Portsmouth
- Razak Boukari Signed From LB Châteauroux
- Sidi Yaya Keita Signed From Strasbourg
- Benoît Assou-Ekotto Sold To Tottenham Hotspur FC
- Yoann Lachor Sold To CS Sedan Ardennes
Former great players
- French players
Maryan Wisniewski (33, 12 goals)
Bernard Placzek
Ahmed Oudjani
Georges Lech (16, 4)
Farès Bousdira (1)
Didier Six (11, 2)
Daniel Leclercq
François Brisson (2)
Daniel Xuereb (3)
Didier Sénac (2)
Philippe Vercruysse (3, 1)
Jean-Guy Wallemme
Eric Sikora
Frédéric Déhu (5)
Pierre Laigle (8, 1)
Tony Vairelles (8, 1)
- Foreign players
Tony Marek, Austria
Vladimir Smicer, Czech Republic
Teitur Thordarsson, Iceland
External links
| Ligue 1 |
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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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