The Challenge Emiliano Sala is an annual friendly football competition played in honour of Argentine footballer

Emiliano Sala Emiliano Raúl Sala Taffarel (; 31 October 1990 – 21 January 2019) was an Argentine professional footballer who played as a striker. After playing youth football in Argentina and following a short spell in Portugal's regional leagues, Sala ...

, who died on 21 January 2019 in a plane crash. The participating clubs in the first edition in 2021 were

Girondins de Bordeaux Football Club des Girondins de Bordeaux (), commonly referred to as Girondins de Bordeaux ( oc, Girondins de Bordèu) or simply Bordeaux, is a French professional football club based in the city of Bordeaux in Gironde, Nouvelle-Aquitaine. The ...

Stade Malherbe Caen Stade Malherbe Caen (; commonly known as SM Caen, SMC, or simply Caen) is a French professional football team, based in the city of Caen in Normandy, that competes in the Ligue 2. The club was founded on 17 November 1913 by the merger of ''C ...

FC Nantes Football Club de Nantes (; Gallo: ''Naunnt''), commonly referred to as FC Nantes or simply Nantes (), is a French professional football club based in Nantes in Pays de la Loire. The club was founded on 21 April 1943, during World War II, a ...

, and

Chamois Niortais Chamois Niortais Football Club (often referred to as ''Les Chamois'', Chamois Niortais, or simply Niort) is a French association football club based in the commune of Niort, in the Deux-Sèvres department of western France. It was founded in 1 ...

, all former clubs of Sala.

History

The Challenge Emiliano Sala is organized by the ''Un jour meilleur'' association founded by former

US Orléans Union Sportive Orléans Loiret Football (; commonly referred to as US Orléans or simply Orléans) is a French association football club based in Orléans. The club was founded in 1976 and currently play in Championnat National after being relega ...

defender

Cédric Cambon Cédric Cambon (born 20 September 1986) is a retired former French professional footballer who last played for US Orléans as a defender. Club career Born in Montpellier, Cambon started playing football as a youth in Cournonterral, where he w ...

with the support of the city of

Orléans Orléans (;"Orleans"
(US) and The inspiration for the creation of the competition came from Thomas Renault, sports assistant in the town of Orléans and former US Orléans goalkeeper who played alongside Emiliano Sala at USO. For each ticket sold to matches of the competition, one

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

is donated to the Emiliano Sala solidarity fund, started by

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

, who had signed him from Nantes shortly before his death. This fund has the objective of collecting €2.25 million to create a new stadium bearing Sala's name in his native town of in Argentina. The rest of each ticket's price is given to the ''Un jour meilleur'' association. A charity gala and an auction of football kits are also organized during the three days of the tournament in order to raise funds. The first edition of the tournament took place from 16 to 18 July 2021 at the

Stade de la Source Stade de la Source is a football stadium in Orléans, France. It is the current home of US Orléans. The stadium is able to hold 7,533 people and was opened in 1976. References Source Source may refer to: Research * Historical document * ...

in Orléans. The first semi-final was played between

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...

and

Caen Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,Niort Niort (; Poitevin: ''Niàu''; oc, Niòrt; la, Novioritum) is a commune in the Deux-Sèvres department, western France. It is the prefecture of Deux-Sèvres. The population of Niort is 58,707 (2017) and more than 177,000 people live in the u ...

and

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

. Caen eliminated Nantes with a 1–0 win thanks to a goal from Yoann Court, and Bordeaux won against Niort in a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pen ...

(5–3) after a 1–1 draw in which

Jimmy Briand Jimmy Julien Briand (born 2 August 1985) is a French professional footballer. He started his career as a striker, but is now usually deployed on the wing. Briand is a graduate of Clairefontaine academy and was a France youth international. He ...

opened the scoring for ''Les Girondins'' and Guy Kilama equalized for ''Les Chamois''. On 18 July, Nantes and Niort played in the

third place playoff A third place match, game for third place, bronze medal game or consolation game is a single match that is included in many sporting knockout tournaments to decide which competitor or team will be credited with finishing third and fourth. The tea ...

the Challenge Emiliano Sala. Niort won the match, securing third place in the competition thanks to a goal from Mathis Ansar. The final of the first edition of the tournament was therefore played between Caen and Bordeaux, a game in which Bordeaux was victorious by a score of 2–1. Caen opened the scoring with a goal from Vladislav Molchan, but goals from

Rémi Oudin Rémi Oudin (born 18 November 1996) is a French professional footballer who plays for club Lecce. A versatile player, Oudin can play as a winger, left midfielder, central midfielder or forward. Club career Oudin is a youth exponent from Reims ...

and

Sékou Mara Sékou Mara (born 30 July 2002) is a French professional footballer who plays as a forward for EFL Championship club Southampton. Club career Bordeaux Mara made his professional debut for Bordeaux in a 2–0 Coupe de France loss to Toulous ...

secured the win for FCGB. Bordeaux therefore won the first edition of the Challenge Emiliano Sala. The second edition of the Challenge Emiliano Sala was scheduled to take place 16–17 July 2022, with the participating teams being Bordeaux, Caen, Nantes, and Orléans. However, the competition was cancelled after Nantes pulled out on 6 July. The club’s head coach,

Antoine Kombouaré Antoine Krilone Kombouaré (; born 16 November 1963) is a French professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of Ligue 1 club Nantes. Playing career Born in the French overseas territory of New Caledonia, Kombouaré bega ...

, explained the decision by saying, "Between the demotion of Bordeaux o the Championnat National">Championnat_National.html" ;"title="o the Championnat National">o the Championnat Nationaland this limited workforce, I had to make this decision." In 2023, the Challenge Emiliano Sala was once again cancelled, in part due to the Stade de la Source's pitch needing to be maintained for the new season.

Past winners

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official website
French football friendly trophies 2021 establishments in France Recurring sporting events established in 2021