Grenoble Foot 38, commonly referred to as simply Grenoble or GF38, is a French association football club based in

Grenoble Grenoble ( ; ; or ; or ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Isère Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region ...

. The club plays its home matches at the Stade des Alpes, a sports complex based in the heart of the city, and wears white and blue. The original incarnation of the club was founded in 1911 and, in 1997, was formed into the club that exists today as a result of a merger. Grenoble currently plays in

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship reasons, 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 de Football Prof ...

, the second level of French football, after having gone into bankruptcy and relegation to the fifth level of French football in 2011.

History

The club was founded in 1911 as ''Football Club de Grenoble''. In 1997, a merger of ''Olympique Grenoble Isère'' and ''Norcap Olympique'' led to the ''Grenoble Foot 38'' incarnation. Olympique Grenoble Isère played in Ligue 1 in the 1960–61 and 1962–63 seasons. In 2004, Grenoble Foot was acquired by Index Holdings, a Japanese mobile software company, therefore becoming the first French football club to have foreign owners. The price of the deal was around €2 million. The new owners invested in the Stade des Alpes, a new ground with an initial capacity of 20,000 which opened in February 2008. Grenoble finished the

2007–08 Ligue 2 The Ligue 2 season 2007–08 was the sixty-sixth since its establishment, and started in August 2007. The fixtures were announced in June 2007. FC Metz, the champions of Ligue 2, SM Caen, and RC Strasbourg were promoted to France's top division ...

season in third place, thus returning to

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

for the first time since 1963. In the

2008–09 Ligue 1 The 2008–09 Ligue 1 season was the 71st since its establishment. Bordeaux became champions for the sixth time on the last weekend of the season. The fixtures were announced on 23 May 2008. The season began on 9 August 2008 and ended on 30 May ...

season, Grenoble finished 13th. However, after losing their first eleven games of the following season, they were eventually relegated with six games remaining amidst severe financial problems. In the same season, Grenoble reached the semi-finals of the

Coupe de France The Coupe de France (), also known in English language, English as the French Cup or less commonly as the France Cup, is the premier Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in French football organised by the French Football Fed ...

for the only time, defeating

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

2–0 at home in the quarter-finals on 18 March 2009, and losing by a single goal to

Rennes Rennes (; ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in Northwestern France at the confluence of the rivers Ille and Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the Brittany (administrative region), Brittany Regions of F ...

in the semi-finals on 21 April. The professional football club was liquidated in July 2011 with debts of €2.9 million, and relegated administratively to Championnat de France Amateur 2, the fifth tier. Index provided false financial statements during their ownership of the club. Now an amateur side, Grenoble won promotion from Championnat de France Amateur 2 at the first attempt in 2012, and were champions of the 2016–17 Championnat de France Amateur, returning to

Championnat National The Championnat National (), commonly referred to as simply National or Division 3, is the third division of the French football league system behind Ligue 1 and Ligue 2. Contested by 18 clubs, the Championnat National operates on a system of ...

for the 2017–18 season. They secured their second successive promotion to

on 27 May 2018, after an aggregate play-off victory over

Bourg-en-Bresse Bourg-en-Bresse (; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Ain department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Eastern France. Located northeast of Lyon, it is the capital of the ancient Provinces of France, province of Bresse (). I ...

Name changes

* ''Football Club de Grenoble'' (1911–1977) * ''Football Club Association Sportive de Grenoble'' (1977–1984) * ''Football Club de Grenoble Dauphiné'' (1984–1990) * ''Football Club de Grenoble Isère'' (1990–1992) * ''Football Club de Grenoble Jojo Isère'' (1992–1993) * ''Olympique Grenoble Isère'' (1993–1997) * ''Grenoble Foot 38'' (1997–''present'')

Players

Current squad

Out on loan

Notable players

* Youri Djorkaeff

Coaching staff

Managers

Jules Dewaquez Jules Aimé Devaquez (9 March 1899 – 12 June 1971), known as Jules Dewaquez, was a French amateur footballer, who played for both club and country on the right wing. He was of shorter stature (1.69m) and renowned for his small moustache. By p ...

(1945–1946) *R. Lacoste (1953–1954) *G. Dupraz (1957–1958) *A. Fornetti (1958–1963) * Albert Batteux (1963–1967) *R. Abad (1967–1970) * René Gardien (1970–1971) *J. Donnard (1971–1972) *R. Garcin (1972–1975) * Jean Deloffre (1975–1978) *R. Belloni (1978–1980) * Michel Lafranceschina (1980–1981) * Jean Djorkaeff (1981–1983) * Claude Le Roy (1983–1985) * Robert Buigues (1985–1986) * Christian Dalger (1986–1989) * Patrick Parizon (1989–1990) * Noël Tosi (1990–1991) * Bernard Simondi (1991–1993) *B. David (1993–1994) *C. Letard (1994–1995) *É. Geraldes (1995–1996) * Bernard Simondi (1996–1997) * Alain Michel (1997–2001) * Marc Westerloppe (2001–2002) * Alain Michel (2002–2004) * Thierry Goudet (2004–2006) *

Yvon Pouliquen Yvon Pouliquen (born 17 October 1962) is a French association football, football manager and former player. He played as a defensive midfielder for 14 seasons (all but one in Ligue 1) and made 455 appearances in the French league. He then spent s ...

(2006–2007) *

Mehmed Baždarević Mehmed Baždarević (born 28 September 1960) is a Bosnian professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player. He was most recently the manager of Ligue 2 club En Avant Guingamp, Guingamp. Baždarevi� ...

(2007–2010) *

(2010–2011) *Olivier Saragaglia (2012–2015) * Jean-Louis Garcia (2015–2016) * Olivier Guégan (2016–2018) * Philippe Hinschberger (2018–2021) * Maurizio Jacobacci (2021) * Vincent Hognon (2021–2024) * Laurent Peyrelade (2024) * Oswald Tanchot (2024) * Franck Rizzetto (2025–Present)

Honours

**''Champions'': 1960, 1962 *

**''Champions'': 2001 * Coppa delle Alpi **''Runners-up'': 1963 * Coupe Gambardella **''Runners-up'': 1987, 1990

References

External links

{{Ligue 2 teamlist Association football clubs established in 1911 1911 establishments in France Football clubs in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Sport in Grenoble Ligue 1 clubs