Toulouse Football Club is French professional
football club based in
Toulouse
Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...
. The club was founded in 1970 and currently plays in
Ligue 1, the premier division of
French football
Association football is the most popular sport in France. The French Football Federation (FFF, Fédération Française de Football) is the national governing body and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of association football in the cou ...
. Toulouse plays its home matches at the
Stadium de Toulouse located within the city.
''Les Pitchouns'' have won Ligue 2 on three occasions.
Toulouse have participated in
European competition The European Competition is a student competition in which students of all ages submit creative, artistic, or written pieces of work on the activities of the European Union. Tendered by European Movement Germany, it is the oldest student competition ...
five times, including in 2007 when they qualified for the
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...
for the first time.
The president of Toulouse FC is
Damien Comolli, who succeeded the French businessman
Olivier Sadran
Olivier Sadran (born 1969 in Toulouse) is a French businessman. He is president of the airline catering company Newrest, a group that in 2018 is established in 49 countries and employs 32,000 people. In 2008 he entered the list of the 500 most ...
who took over the club following its bankruptcy in 2001 which resulted in it being relegated to the
Championnat National
The Championnat de France National ( en, French National Championship), commonly referred to as simply National or Division 3, serves as the third division of the French football league system behind Ligue 1 and Ligue 2. Contested by 18 clubs, ...
. The club has served as a springboard for several players, most notably the World Cup-winning goalkeeper
Fabien Barthez
Fabien Alain Barthez (born 28 June 1971) is a French racing driver and former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. At club level, he played football in both France and England with Toulouse, Marseille, AS Monaco, Manchester United ...
, international strikers
André-Pierre Gignac
André-Pierre Christian Gignac (born 5 December 1985) is a French professional footballer who plays as a striker for Liga MX club Tigres UANL. Gignac is described as a "powerful and dangerous" striker who is known for his "aerial presence". He ...
and
Martin Braithwaite
Martin Christensen Braithwaite (; born 5 June 1991) is a Danish professional footballer who plays for La Liga club Espanyol and the Denmark national team. He plays mainly as a forward, but he can also play as a winger.
Having begun his career ...
History
The city was left without a big side in 1967 when Toulouse FC sold its players and place in the French top flight to Paris outfit
Red Star, but three years later a new club, Union Sportive Toulouse, rose from the ashes. Adopting red and yellow jerseys, the club started out in Ligue 2 and in 1979 reclaimed the name Toulouse FC. Now wearing purple and white, ''Les Pitchouns'' gained top-flight promotion in 1982. A side containing
Jacques Santini
Jacques Jean Claude Santini (born 25 April 1952) is a French former professional footballer and manager. He played for Saint-Étienne during the 1970s, and reached the European Cup final with them in 1976. He has coached the French national tea ...
and Swiss forward
Daniel Jeandupeux
Daniel Jeandupeux (born 7 February 1949) is a Swiss football manager and retired football forward.
Career
Born in Saint-Imier, Jeandupeux began playing football for FC La Chaux-de-Fonds. In 1972, he joined FC Zürich, where he would win two Sw ...
earned a penalty shoot-out victory against
Diego Maradona
Diego Armando Maradona (; 30 October 196025 November 2020) was an Argentine professional football player and manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was one of the two joint winners of the F ...
's
Napoli
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
in the
1986–87 UEFA Cup
The 1986–87 UEFA Cup was the 16th season of the UEFA Cup, a football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for clubs affiliated to its member associations. The competition was won by IFK Göteborg of Sweden ...
, Toulouse's maiden European campaign.
![ToulousefêteTFC](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Toulousef%C3%AAteTFC.JPG)
After goalkeeper
Fabien Barthez
Fabien Alain Barthez (born 28 June 1971) is a French racing driver and former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. At club level, he played football in both France and England with Toulouse, Marseille, AS Monaco, Manchester United ...
made his breakthrough and moved on, Toulouse were relegated in 1994. They subsequently bounced back and forth between Ligues 1 and 2 before slipping to the third flight in 2001 after financial problems. Toulouse were back in the top flight two seasons later, and in 2007 they finished third to earn a place in the
2007–08 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round. There,
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
overpowered them 5–0 on aggregate.
In 2008–09, Toulouse finished fourth in the Ligue 1 table with 64 points, and secured a spot in the new Europa League, while
André-Pierre Gignac
André-Pierre Christian Gignac (born 5 December 1985) is a French professional footballer who plays as a striker for Liga MX club Tigres UANL. Gignac is described as a "powerful and dangerous" striker who is known for his "aerial presence". He ...
led all scorers in Ligue 1 with 24 goals and was awarded a call-up to the French national team.
In the 2015–16
Ligue 1 season, Toulouse avoided relegation to
Ligue 2 in the last game of the season. With 12 minutes to go, Toulouse were behind to Angers 2–1 and needed a win to survive, and scored two late goals and won the match 3–2. Two years later, they finished 18th and won the promotion/relegation playoff 4–0 on aggregate against Ligue 2's
AC Ajaccio
Athletic Club Ajaccio ( co, Athletic Club Aiacciu), commonly referred to as AC Ajaccio, ''ACA'' or simply Ajaccio, is a French association football club based in the city of Ajaccio on the island of Corsica. The club was founded in 1910 and ...
.
On 6 January 2020, Toulouse dismissed manager
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 ...
following the club's 1–0 loss to
Championnat National 2
The Championnat National 2, commonly known as National 2 and formerly known as Championnat de France Amateur (CFA), is a football league competition. The league serves as the fourth tier of the French football league system behind Ligue 1, Ligu ...
side
Saint-Pryvé Saint-Hilaire in the
Coupe de France
The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Coupe Charles Simon, is the premier knockout cup competition in French football organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). It was first held in 1917 and is open to all amateur and profession ...
. Under Kombouaré the club had lost ten matches in a row, leading him to be dismissed and replaced by
Denis Zanko
Denis Zanko (born 13 April 1964) is a French professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He made over 250 league appearances for five different clubs during his playing career before becoming a coach in 1995. He we ...
. On 30 April that year, Toulouse were relegated to Ligue 2 after the LFP elected to end the season early due to the
coronavirus pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identifie ...
.
On 21 July 2020, RedBird Capital Partners acquired an 85% stake in Toulouse FC. The club achieved promotion back to Ligue 1 in 2022.
Name changes
* Union Sportive Toulouse (1970–79)
* Toulouse Football Club (1979–current)
Stadium
![Stadium-Lory](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Stadium-Lory.jpg)
Toulouse play their home matches at the Stadium de Toulouse. Built in 1937, the stadium presently has a capacity of 33,150. The stadium was used as a venue for the
1998 FIFA World Cup,
2007 Rugby Union World Cup
The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to 20 ...
and
UEFA Euro 2016
The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...
.
Colours
The violet is a reference to one of two Toulouse nicknames: ''la Cité des violettes'' (the City of Violets), the second one being ''la Ville rose'' (the Pink City), which explains the colour of former alternate jerseys.
The team's logo displays the gold and blood-red
Occitan cross
The Occitan cross (also called ''cross of Occitania'', ''cross of Languedoc'', ''cross of Toulouse''; heraldically ''cross cleché, pommetty and voided'') is a heraldic cross, today chiefly used as a symbol of Occitania.
The design was probably ...
, the symbol of
Occitania
Occitania ( oc, Occitània , , or ) is the historical region in Western and Southern Europe where the Occitan language was historically spoken and where it is sometimes still used as a second language. This cultural area roughly encompasse ...
, of which Toulouse is a historical capital.
Club rivalries
Derby de la Garonne
The Derby de la Garonne is a derby match between
Girondins de Bordeaux and Toulouse. The derby derives from the fact that
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 prefect ...
and Toulouse are the two major cities in south-western France, both of which are situated on the
Garonne River. The consistency and competitiveness of the rivalry developed following Toulouse's return to
Ligue 1 after being administratively relegated to the
Championnat National
The Championnat de France National ( en, French National Championship), commonly referred to as simply National or Division 3, serves as the third division of the French football league system behind Ligue 1 and Ligue 2. Contested by 18 clubs, ...
in 2001.
Players
Current squad
Out on loan
Honours
:''.''
Domestic
*
Ligue 2
**Winners (3):
1981–82,
2002–03,
2021–22
Club officials
Managers
*
José Farías
José Farías (17 April 1937 – 10 June 2004) was an Argentine football player and manager. He played and coached in France.
Farías played for Boca Juniors, Club de Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata, Club Atlético Lanús, Los Andes, Club At ...
(1970–72)
*
Richard Boucher (1973–74, 1974–75, 1976–77)
*
Ángel Marcos
Ángel Marcos (born April 7, 1943) is an Argentine former football striker currently working in the staff of Niort.
Playing career
Marcos started his professional playing career in 1963 with Ferro Carril Oeste. He was part of the squad that wo ...
(1977–78)
*
Just Fontaine
Just Louis Fontaine (born 18 August 1933) is a French former professional footballer. A prolific forward, he is best known for scoring the most goals in a single edition of the FIFA World Cup, with thirteen in six matches in 1958. In 2004, Pel ...
(1978–79)
*
Pierre Cahuzac (1979–83)
*
Daniel Jeandupeux
Daniel Jeandupeux (born 7 February 1949) is a Swiss football manager and retired football forward.
Career
Born in Saint-Imier, Jeandupeux began playing football for FC La Chaux-de-Fonds. In 1972, he joined FC Zürich, where he would win two Sw ...
(1 July 1983 – 30 June 1985)
*
Jacques Santini
Jacques Jean Claude Santini (born 25 April 1952) is a French former professional footballer and manager. He played for Saint-Étienne during the 1970s, and reached the European Cup final with them in 1976. He has coached the French national tea ...
(1 July 1985 – 30 June 1989)
*
Pierre Mosca (1 July 1989 – 30 June 1991)
*
Victor Zvunka
Victor Zvunka ( ro, Victor Zvuncă; born 15 November 1951 in Le Ban-Saint-Martin) is a French former association football, football Defender (association football), defender and football manager most recently in charge of Sporting Club Toulon.
...
(1 July 1991 – 1 September 1992)
* Serge Delmas (1 July 1992 – 14 January 1994)
*
Jean-Luc Ruty (14 January 1994 – 30 June 1994)
*
Rolland Courbis
Rolland Courbis (; born 12 August 1953) is a French football manager and former professional player who played as a defender. He was most recently manager of Stade Rennais F.C., having replaced Philippe Montanier on 20 January 2016.
Career
Bo ...
(1 July 1994 – 1 November 1995)
*
Alain Giresse
Alain Jean Giresse (; born 2 August 1952) is a French football coach and former player who is the current manager of the Kosovo national team. He was French Player of the Year in 1982, 1983 and 1987. Nominally an attacking midfielder or central ...
(1 November 1995 – 30 June 1998)
*
Guy Lacombe
Guy Hubert Georges Lacombe (born 12 June 1955) is a French manager (association football), football manager and former professional football player, player.
Playing career
Lacombe was a member of the French squad that won the gold medal at the ...
(1 July 1998 – 25 January 1999)
*
Alain Giresse
Alain Jean Giresse (; born 2 August 1952) is a French football coach and former player who is the current manager of the Kosovo national team. He was French Player of the Year in 1982, 1983 and 1987. Nominally an attacking midfielder or central ...
(26 January 1999 – 9 October 2000)
*
Robert Nouzaret
Robert Nouzaret (born 29 September 1943) is a French football manager and former player.
Managerial career
On 31 August 2011, Nouzaret resigned as DR Congo coach following a difference in opinion with the football federation over the Frenchman ...
(1 October 2000 – 30 June 2001)
*
Erick Mombaerts
Erick Mombaerts (born 21 April 1955) is a French football manager and former player.
Playing career
Mombaerts is a youth product of INF Vichy. He went on to play for Nœux-les-Mines and Montluçon before retiring in 1984.
Coaching career
Momb ...
(1 July 2001 – 30 June 2006)
*
Elie Baup
Elie and Earlsferry is a coastal town and former royal burgh in Fife, and parish, Scotland, situated within the East Neuk beside Chapel Ness on the north coast of the Firth of Forth, eight miles east of Leven. The burgh comprised the linked ...
(1 July 2006 – 30 May 2008)
*
Alain Casanova
Alain Casanova (born 18 September 1961) is a French former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He most recently was manager of Swiss side FC Lausanne-Sport.
Career
Born in Clermont-Ferrand, Casanova played for Cournon, INF Vichy, Le Havre ...
(30 May 2008 – 16 March 2015)
*
Dominique Arribagé
Dominique Arribagé (born 11 May 1971 in Suresnes) is a French football manager and former player who most recently was the manager of Toulouse
Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and o ...
(16 March 2015 – 2 March 2016)
*
Pascal Dupraz
Pascal Fernand Dupraz (born 19 September 1962) is a French professional football manager and former player who played as a striker. He was most recently the manager of Ligue 1 club Saint-Étienne.
Early life
Dupraz was born in Annemasse, Haute- ...
(2 March 2016 – 22 January 2018)
*
Mickaël Debève
Mickaël Debève (born 1 December 1970) is a French footballer manager and former footballer player who played as a midfielder he is the currently assistant manager Ligue 1 club of Toulouse.
Football career
Born in Abbeville, Debève began his ...
(23 January 2018 – 14 June 2018)
*
Alain Casanova
Alain Casanova (born 18 September 1961) is a French former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He most recently was manager of Swiss side FC Lausanne-Sport.
Career
Born in Clermont-Ferrand, Casanova played for Cournon, INF Vichy, Le Havre ...
(22 June 2018 – 10 October 2019)
*
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 ...
(14 October 2019 – 6 January 2020)
*
Denis Zanko
Denis Zanko (born 13 April 1964) is a French professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He made over 250 league appearances for five different clubs during his playing career before becoming a coach in 1995. He we ...
(5 January 2020 – 22 June 2020)
*
Patrice Garande
Patrice Garande (born 27 November 1960) is a French former professional footballer who played as a striker, currently a manager.
Playing career Club
Born in Oullins, Rhône, Garande finished his development at AS Saint-Étienne, but appeared rar ...
(22 June 2020 – 2 June 2021)
*
Philippe Montanier
Philippe Jacques William Montanier (born 15 November 1964) is French professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of club Toulouse. As a player, he was as a goalkeeper.
Early life
Philippe Jacques William Montanier was b ...
(23 June 2021 – present)
See also
*
Toulouse FC (women)
Toulouse FC Féminines is a French football representing Toulouse FC. It currently competes in the Division 2 Féminine. Founded in 1980 as Toulouse OAC, the team became a section of Toulouse FC in 2001, at its peak.
Toulouse OAC settled in ...
References
Further reading
* ''Toulouse Football Club, de 1937 à nos jours'', de Jean-Louis Berho et Didier Pitorre, avec la collaboration de Jean-Paul Cazeneuve et Jérôme Leclerc (Éditions Universelles)
* ''La Grande Histoire du TFC'', de Nicolas Bernard (Éditions Universelles)
* ''TouFoulCan'', la Bande-dessinée qui supporte le Toulouse Football Club.
External links
*
Toulouse Football Clubat
Ligue 1 Toulouse FCat
UEFA
Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...
{{Championnat National 3 Group Occitanie
Association football clubs established in 1970
1970 establishments in France
Football clubs in Occitania (administrative region)
Ligue 1 clubs