Montpellier Hérault Sport Club (), commonly referred to as Montpellier HSC or simply Montpellier, is a French professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

club based in the city of

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the department of Hérault. In 2018, 290,053 people l ...

in Occitanie. The original club was founded in 1919, while the current incarnation was founded through a merger in 1974. Montpellier currently plays in

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. ...

, the top level of French football and plays its home matches at the Stade de la Mosson, located within the city. The first team is managed by Olivier Dall'Oglio and captained by Teji Savanier. Montpellier is owned by Laurent Nicollin, the son of the late Louis Nicollin, a French entrepreneur, who had been owner since 1974. The club have produced several famous players in its history, most notably

Laurent Blanc Laurent Robert Blanc (born 19 November 1965) is a French professional football manager and former player who played as a centre-back, and is currently the manager of Ligue 1 club Lyon. He has the nickname ''Le Président'', which was given to hi ...

, who has served as manager of the France national team. Blanc is also the club's all-time leading goalscorer.

Eric Cantona Eric Daniel Pierre Cantona (; ; born 24 May 1966) is a French actor, director, producer, and former professional footballer. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of his generation, Cantona is credited as having made Manchester United a d ...

, Roger Milla,

Carlos Valderrama Carlos Alberto Valderrama Palacio (Colombian Spanish: ; born 2 September 1961), also known as ''El Pibe'' ("The Kid"), is a Colombian former professional footballer and sports commentator for Fútbol de Primera, who played as an attacking mid ...

and Olivier Giroud are other players who have played in Montpellier's colours. In 2001, Montpellier introduced a women's team.

History

Montpellier was founded under the name Stade Olympique Montpelliérain (SOM) and played under the name for most of its existence. In 1989, after playing under various names, the club changed its name to its current form. Montpellier is one of the founding members of the first division of French football. Along with

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

Rennes Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine departme ...

and

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative ...

, Montpellier is one of only a few clubs to have played in the inaugural 1932–33 season and is still playing in the first division. The club won Ligue 1 for the first time in the 2011–12 season. Montpellier's other honours to date include winning 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 ...

in 1929 and

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicis ...

, and the

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, ' betting pool'),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Fo ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

. In the 2011–12 season, Montpellier won its first Ligue 1 title, finishing the season with 82 points, three points ahead of runners-up Paris Saint-Germain. On 20 May 2012, in a game marred by stoppages for crowd violence, John Utaka scored a brace to secure a 2–1 victory over

Auxerre Auxerre ( , ) is the capital of the Yonne department and the fourth-largest city in Burgundy. Auxerre's population today is about 35,000; the urban area (''aire d'attraction'') comprises roughly 113,000 inhabitants. Residents of Auxerre are r ...

and win the Ligue 1 title for Montpellier. Olivier Giroud, who finished the season with 21 goals and 9 assists, was the league's top goal scorer. Despite being tied on goals with Paris Saint-Germain attacker Nenê, he was named the league's top scorer by the Ligue de Football Professionnel due to finishing with more goals in open play.

Players

Current squad

Out on loan

Records

Most appearances

Top scorers

Management and staff

Club officials

;Senior club staff *President: Laurent Nicollin *Association chairman: Gilbert Varlot *Sporting Director: Bruno Carotti *Head of Youth: Francis De Taddeo ;Coaching and medical staff *Manager: Vacant *Assistant Manager: Ghislain Printant *First-Team Coach: Franck Rizzetto *Goalkeeper Coach: Dominique Deplagne *Goalkeeper Coach: Teddy Richert *Fitness Coach: Stéphane Paganelli *Scout: Serge Delmas

Coaching history

Honours

Domestic

**''Champions'' (1): 2011–12 *

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship by Balkrishna Industries, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions making up the Ligue ...

**''Champions'' (3): 1945–46, 1960–61, 1986–87 *

**''Champions'' (2): 1928—29, 1989–90 **''Runners-up'' (2): 1930—31, 1993–94 *

Coupe de la Ligue The Coupe de la Ligue (), known outside France as the French League Cup, was a knockout cup competition in French football organized by the Ligue de Football Professionnel. The tournament was established in 1993 and, unlike the Coupe de France ...

**''Champions'' (1):

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engin ...

**''Runners-up'' (2):

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nels ...

, 2010–11 *Division d'Honneur (Languedoc-Roussillon) **''Champions'' (2): 1981, 1992The two DH titles won were achieved by the club's reserve team.

Europe

**''Winners'' (1):

Other

*Division d'Honneur (Sud-Est) **''Champions'' (3): 1928, 1932, 1976

U19

* Coupe Gambardella **''Champions'' (3): 1996, 2009, 2017 **''Runners-up'' (3): 1984, 1985, 1997

References

External links

* {{UEFA Intertoto Cup winners Association football clubs established in 1919 Sport in Montpellier 1919 establishments in France UEFA Intertoto Cup winning clubs Football clubs in Occitania (administrative region) Ligue 1 clubs