Strasbourg RC

Racing Club de Strasbourg Alsace (commonly known as RC Strasbourg, Racing Straßburg, RCSA, RCS, or simply Strasbourg; Alsatian: ''Füeßbàllmànnschàft Vu Stroßburri'') is a French association football club founded in 1906, based in the city of Strasbourg, Alsace. It has possessed professional status since 1933 and is currently playing in Ligue 1, the top tier of French football, ever since winning the 2016–17 Ligue 2 championship. This comes after the club was demoted to the fifth tier of French football at the conclusion of the 2010–11 Championnat National season after going into financial liquidation. Renamed RC Strasbourg Alsace, they won the CFA championship in 2012–13, and eventually became Championnat National champions in 2015–16. The club's home stadium, since 1914, is the Stade de la Meinau.

The club is one of six clubs to have won all three major French trophies: the Championship in 1979, the Coupe de France in 1951, 1966 and 2001 and the Coupe de la Ligue in 1964, 1997, 2005 and 2019. Strasbourg is also among the six teams to have played more than 2,000 games in France's top flight (spanning 56 seasons) and has taken part in 52 European games since 1961. Despite these accomplishments, the club has never really managed to establish itself as one of France's leading clubs, experiencing relegation at least once a decade since the early 1950s. Racing has changed its manager 52 times in 75 years of professional play, often under pressure from the fans.

The destiny of the club has always been wedded to the history of Alsace. Like the region, Racing has changed nationality three times and has a troubled history. Founded in what was then a part of the German Empire, the club from the beginning insisted on its Alsatian and popular roots, in opposition to the first Strasbourg-based clubs which came from the German-born bourgeoisie. When Alsace was returned to France in 1919, the club changed its name from "1. FC Neudorf" to the current "Racing Club de Strasbourg" in imitation of Pierre de Coubertin's Racing Club de France, a clear gesture of francophilia. Racing players lived through World War II as most Alsatians did: evacuated in 1939, annexed in 1940 and striving to avoid nazification and incorporation in the Wehrmacht between 1942 and 1944. When Alsace was definitively returned to France, Racing's identity switched towards Jacobinism with, for example, emotional wins in the cup in 1951 and 1966 amidst Franco-Alsatian controversies. More recently, the club has been eager to promote its European vocation along with its strong local ties.

In April 2021, the club partnered up with French Esport organization Team Vitality for the FIFA eLigui 1, marking their first step into competitive Esports.

History

Foundation and early years (1906–1945)

The club was founded in 1906 by a group of youngsters in the Neudorf neighbourhood of what was then Straßburg, Elsaß-Lothringen, in the German Empire, but is today Strasbourg, Alsace, in France. With the help of their primary-school teacher, they formed a team called "Erster Fußball Club Neudorf", commonly named "FC Neudorf". At that time, the new 1. FCN was a minor club in a then-remote southern part of the Strasbourg area. Local football had been dominated since the 1890s by the more central and elitist Straßburger Fußball Verein. According to club historian Pierre Perny, the official establishment of the FC Neudorf in 1907 may well have been accelerated by the planned move of FC Frankonia to the Haemmerle Garten, a large park in southern Strasbourg close to the Neudorf. As its name told, FC Frankonia was mainly composed of German-born immigrants from the Franconia region of southwest Germany – some of them soldiers – living in central and northern Strasbourg, while FC Neudorf had clearly Alsatian, popular roots. FC Neudorf joined the southern German league in 1909, starting at its lowest level, Division C. They captured the Division C championship three years later, earning promotion to Division B. In 1914, FC Neudorf was able to evict rivals Frankonia from the Haemmerle Garten for a rent of 300 marks a year. This location would later become the site of the Stade de la Meinau, where the club still plays today. In the aftermath of World War I, the territory of Alsace-Lorraine came back to France and, on 11 January 1919, the club adopted the name "Racing-Club Strasbourg-Neudorf" until becoming simply "Racing Club de Strasbourg" later in the year. The use of the word "Racing" does not denote any association with horse- or car-racing; instead, it is an anglicism that was common in France at the time, as exemplified by the case of the then-famous Racing Club de France, which was a symbolical inspiration for Strasbourg's Racing as Alsace was reintegrated within France. The word is usually pronounced in French ("Le Racing") or in Alsatian ("D'Racing") without any English accentuation. Racing quickly joined French competitions and won the Alsace championship in 1923, 1924 and 1927. They also took part in the Coupe de France, the only national competition at that time. In 1925, they reached the last sixteen, where they fell to Lille after eliminating the then-dominant Red Star Paris.

On 10 June 1933, at the "Restaurant de la Bourse", the club made the jump to the professional ranks and, thus, joined the national championship established just a year before. RCS started competition in Ligue 2 but immediately earned promotion to the top flight at the end of the 1933–34 season, going through a pair of two-legged playoff matches, first against Mulhouse (0–0 and 3–1), and then against AS Saint-Étienne (2–0 and 4–4). In the mid-1930s, Racing managed a second-place finish in 1934–35 and a third-place finish the next season. In 1937, the club reached for the first time the final of the Coupe de France, losing to rivals Sochaux ( 1–2). This successful RCS team of the 1930s included two French internationals – Fritz Keller and Oscar Heisserer – as well as German striker Oskar Rohr who still holds the club's goalscoring record.

With the outbreak of World War II, professional sport was suspended and Alsatians were evacuated to south-west France, especially in the Dordogne. During the Phoney War, a group of youngsters kept the club existing in Périgueux, where they won the Dordogne championship in 1940. After the French defeat, Alsace was ''de facto'' annexed by the Third Reich and, in August 1940, the team took up play as in the Gauliga Elsaß, a top-flight amateur division in German football. RCS captured their group in 1941 and participated in the regional finals, where they were put out 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 in 1942. Starting in 1942, Alsatians were forcibly conscripted in the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS and several club players – including Oscar Heisserer – fled or had their teammates deliberately wound them to avoid incorporation. Oskar Rohr also had been imprisoned since 1940 after serving in the French Foreign Legion at the outbreak of the war. During a game against SS side "SG SS Straßburg", Rasensportclub players wore a uniform consisting of a blue jersey, white shorts and red socks as a clear display of French patriotism.

First national successes and failures (1945–1976)

Allied armies retook Alsace in 1944 and the club quickly resumed play as "Racing Club de Strasbourg" in France's top flight. The team was then built around Oscar Heisserer—who became in April 1945 the first Alsatian to captain the national team—and Spanish defender Paco Mateo. In 1947, the ''Strasbourgeois'' reached for the second time the final of the cup at Colombes, this time losing to Lille OSC 0–2. 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 Strasbourg to stay up. In 1951, the ''Bleus'' won their first major trophy, defeating Valenciennes 3–0 to finally bring the Coupe de France home. The significance of this victory went far beyond the sporting realm as Alsace was then shaken by the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre investigation. Fourteen Alsatians, most of them forcibly incorporated in the Das Reich division, had been charged with war crimes, a move that aroused considerable resentment in the region. Immediately after their return in Strasbourg, the players held a symbolical and emotional ceremony at the city's monument to the deaths.

Only one year later, Strasbourg was relegated following the worst ever season in the club's history. They were however back in the top flight after only one season in Division 2. In 1954–55, thanks to the arrival of Austrian star Ernst Stojaspal, Strasbourg had one of its best championship seasons in the post-war era, eventually ending with the 4th place. The club, however, was unable to build on this success and was relegated to Division 2 in 1957 and 1960, each time gaining immediate promotion back to the top flight. During the 1960s, the club was able to participate in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup thanks to the city's ''Foire européenne''. In 1964–65 under Paul Frantz's guidance, Racing ousted giants Milan and Barcelona before falling in the quarter-finals against Manchester United. A year later, they repeated as cup winners beating champions Nantes in final by the score of 1–0. On this occasion, captain René Hauss accomplished the remarkable feat of winning two cups with the same club with a 15 years-interval. Other key team members during this era included Raymond Kaelbel and young talents Gilbert Gress and Gérard Hausser. Again, Racing's triumph in the cup was not without controversy, reporter Thierry Roland said on live TV that "the cup asleaving France", a comment that was deemed offensive by many in Alsace.

In 1968, Racing started a process that would eventually lead to a merger with two other clubs, the "Association Sportive Culturelle de la Meinau" and, most importantly, the CS des Pierrots 1922 Strasbourg. The merger was effective in 1970 and the new entity was named "Le Racing Pierrots Strasbourg Meinau", or RPSM. The ''Pierrots'' were then a very successful amateur team – they won the national amateur championship in 1969 and 1970—but lacked sufficient structures to jump to professional play while Racing was more wealthy but in search for talent. The merger thus appeared as an excellent opportunity to build a powerful football club in Strasbourg and was favoured by business and political circles. However, the wedding was a difficult one with many internal struggles that were evidenced when some of the former ''Pierrots'' left the new entity as soon as 1971 to re-found their former club. That same year, the RPSM was relegated despite the arrival at the end of the season of Yugoslavian star Ivica Osim. As usual, Strasbourg then won immediate promotion with Osim and two French internationals in its ranks: Jean-Noël Huck and Marc Molitor. Back in division 1 in 1972, the club made one of the biggest transfer blunders in its history: Osim was sent to Sedan to leave a foreign player spot for Reinhard Libuda. The Yugoslavian left Strasbourg in tears but helped Sedan to decent results while Libuda was quickly suspended due to a match fixing scandal in Germany and eventually released in March 1973. In 1976, the club was again relegated and went back to its old identity as Racing Club de Strasbourg, reflecting the final failure of the RPSM merger.

Glorious years (1976–1980)

In 1976, the future seemed somewhat dark for Racing: the club had been relegated for the second time in only four years, was torn apart by internal struggles following the failure of the merger and was desperately seeking municipal subventions to reach a balanced budget. Financial difficulties meant that Racing was unable to retain or replace its best players (Huck, Molitor, Gress, Hausser, Spiegel) who left for other clubs or retired. This impossibility to buy on the transfer market meant that, for the first time, Strasbourg had to rely essentially on players out of its youth academy and local amateur clubs. Fortunately for the club, the mid-1970s saw the emergence of a very talented generation of youngsters consisting mainly of Léonard Specht, Jean-Jacques Marx, René Deutschmann, Yves Ehrlacher, Albert Gemmrich, Roland Wagner and Joël Tanter. Along with goalkeeper Dominique Dropsy and captain Jacky Duguépéroux, these players formed the backbone of the team for the superb 1976–1980 period. During these four years, Racing won two championships (D2 in 1977 and D1 in 1979), reached very honourable league rankings the two other years (third in 1978, fifth in 1980) and had its best results ever in European play ( UEFA Cup round of sixteen in 1979, European Cup quarter finals in 1980).

The start of the 1976–77 season was nevertheless difficult. In November, after a defeat at Amiens, Racing called Elek Schwartz out of retirement to help and supervise the work of player-manager Heinz Schilcher. Schwartz was an important player of the 1930s team and had a renowned international coaching career behind him, especially with spells at the Netherlands national team and Benfica. Under his guidance, the team quickly improved, earning promotion to Division 1 and defeating Monaco for the Division 2 championship title, the first one in the club's history. After accomplishing his mission, Schwartz definitely retired and was replaced by Gilbert Gress. As a player, Gress had achieved iconic status with Racing supporters. A child of the Neudorf, he was a genial player with a strong personality, the first Frenchman to shine in the neighbouring Bundesliga with VfB Stuttgart. His second return to Strasbourg, after a first comeback as a player, was greeted with enthusiasm and his charisma aroused a strong public interest for the team's performances, with attendance rates at an all-time high.

The 1977–78 season saw the peculiar dominance of the two promoted sides with Monaco going on to win the championship and Strasbourg reaching an unexpected third place, the best ranking since 1936. Gress printed his mark on the team right away, insisting on the recruitment of experienced, hard-working players (Jacky Novi, Raymond Domenech, Francis Piasecki) instead of foreign stars and putting into practice innovative tactical ideas. A self-proclaimed admirer of Ajax's Total Football, Gress wanted all his players to both defend and attack and asked for great versatility. This was rather unusual in French football at that time. In most French clubs, defenders were told not to cross the midfield line and strikers had almost no defensive duties. To the contrary, Gress instructed his forwards to exert immediate pressure on the other's side defenders and encouraged offensive initiatives by his own backs. A sign of versatility was the fact the side's top-scorer during that era, Albert Gemmrich, played on the left wing despite being right-footed. Gemmrich developed an ability to score with both feet after an injury that forced him to train using only his left foot and Gress used his peculiar profile to puzzle defences, with great success.

For the 1978–79 season, Racing kept essentially the same team that had won promotion in 1977 and a third place in 1978. The only exceptions were the addition of midfielder Roger Jouve and the exchange between striker Jacques Vergnes and Chadian player Nabatingue Toko. A French international, Vergnes clashed with Gress due to his unwillingness to assume defensive duties and his vocal frustration after being regularly sidelined. He was quickly sent to Bordeaux six games after the start the season. His replacement, Tonko, was the only foreign player on the squad that year, a fact that again was unusual since French club football was at that time still very dependent on the qualities of players from abroad. Strasbourg took the lead early in the season and did not give it back until the end in spite of widespread scepticism from national followers. The absence of big names in the team was considered by many to be a crippling handicap against established teams like Saint-Étienne or Nantes which had internationally renowned players. For his part, Gress used the critical review of the press to boost his player's motivation and insisted that "the star is the team". Racing finished atop the championship on 56 points with an undefeated home record. The return from Lyon, where the title game was played, was triumphant with huge crowds greeting the team at every railway station in Alsace before the arrival of the train at Strasbourg.

The club saw same movement during the 1979 inter-season. Chairman Alain Léopold was replaced by the influential André Bord