Le Mans FC

History

Le Mans Sports Club were founded in 1900, but it was not until 1908 that a football club existed within it. Le Mans qualified for the Championnat de la France in 1910, but were heavily overturned by Saint-Servan. Gaining a huge reputation up to World War I, Le Mans SC plunged into obscurity by World War II before joining the war league in 1942.

The football section of Union Sportive du Mans was founded in 1903.

The current club was formed through a merger between Union Sportive du Mans and Le Mans Sports Club on 12 June 1985. Upon its founding, former football player Bernard Deferrez was appointed manager. Le Mans UC spent most of its early years in Ligue 2. In the 2003–04 season, the club achieved promotion to Ligue 1 for the first time, but were immediately relegated. Le Mans returned to the first division for the 2005–06 season and successfully remained in the league for the next four seasons. The club suffered relegation back to Ligue 2 in the 2009–10 season. Midway through the campaign, on 2 December 2009, Le Mans announced that it was changing its name from Le Mans Union Club 72 to Le Mans FC.

Le Mans moved to the MMArena midway through the 2010–11 season, comfortably in the promotion spots for a return to Ligue 1, but a bad run sees them finish 4th, missing promotion on goal difference. The failure to achieve promotion is costly, as the club sees its payroll limited by the DNCG. Many players left, and relegation was only narrowly avoided. The club survived by appeal an attempt by DNCG to relegate them to Championnat National. The following season they were relegated on the field, and a long summer of legal battles saw them liquidated and reforming in Maine (province) Division d'Honneur as an amateur club.

Promotion to Championnat de France Amateur 2 was achieved on the first attempt, and promotion from that division was only narrowly missed in 2014–15 and 2015–16. On the third attempt, promotion to the new Championnat National 2 was obtained in 2016–17, when Le Mans finished as one of the best runners up in the competition. Le Mans was promoted for the second season in a row winning Group D and being promoted to the 2018–19 Championnat National, the club would achieve a third consecutive promotion after successfully overcoming Gazélec Ajaccio in the Ligue 2 relegation play-off final with a 3-2 aggregate score, swapping places with the Corsican club who, only three years before had been members of the top-flight themselves.

The club were in 19th place in Ligue 2 when the season was terminated early due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the club supporting an LFP proposal which would have seen Ligue 2 operate temporarily with 22 clubs, meaning they would stay in the division, the FFF ruled on 27 May 2020 that they were to be relegated to Championnat National.

On 17 May 2025, Le Mans secured promotion to Ligue 2 from next season after win against FC Versailles 2–0 in Final matchweek and return to second tier after five years absence.

In August 2025, Tennis champion Novak Djokovic became a co-owner of Le Mans FC. The acquisition was made through the Brazilian consortium OutField, alongside Formula 1 drivers Felipe Massa and Kevin Magnussen, as well as Georgios Frangulis, CEO of the OakBerry brand.

Players

Current squad

As of 14 January 2026.

Out on loan

Notable players

thumb|130px|right|[[Hassan Yebda]] Below are the notable former players who have represented Le Mans and its predecessors in league and international competition since the club's foundation in 1985. To appear in the section below, a player must have played in at least 100 official matches for the club.

For a complete list of Le Mans players, see :Category:Le Mans FC players

• France Arnaud Denis
• France Ludovic Baal
• Ivory Coast Dagui Bakari
• Guinea Ismaël Bangoura
• Montenegro Marko Baša
• France Régis Beunardeau
• France Willy Bolivard
• France Laurent Bonnart
• France Grégory Cerdan
• France Sébastien Corchia
• Gabon Daniel Cousin
• France Mathieu Coutadeur
• France Vincent Créhin
• France Joffrey Cuffaut
• France Thomas Dasquet
• Brazil Tulio De Melo
• Ivory Coast Stéphane Diarra
• Burkina Faso Moussa Doumbia
• Ivory Coast Didier Drogba
• France Tom Duponchelle
• France Romain Dupont
• Norway Dan Eggen
• Cameroon Patrick Ekeng Ekeng
• France James Fanchone
• France Thibault Ferrand
• France Yannick Fischer
• France Thierry Froger
• France Eric Garcin
• Brazil Antônio Géder
• Ivory Coast Gervinho
• Brazil Grafite
• Morocco Hamza Hafidi
• France Yohan Hautcoeur
• Norway Thorstein Helstad
• Belgium Roland Lamah
• France Pierre Lemonnier
• France Anthony Le Tallec
• France Cyriaque Louvion
• Mali Modibo Maïga
• Japan Daisuke Matsui
• Gabon Didier Ovono
• France Fabrice Pancrate
• France Pierre Patron
• France Olivier Pédémas
• France Yohann Pelé
• France Christian Penaud
• France Laurent Peyrelade
• France Yoann Poulard
• France Réginald Ray
• Ivory Coast Romaric
• France Stéphane Samson
• France Morgan Sanson
• Benin Stéphane Sessègnon
• Cameroon Jacques Songo'o
• Ivory Coast Mamadou Soro
• Norway Fredrik Strømstad
• France Frédéric Thomas
• France Olivier Thomas
• France Olivier Thomert
• Belgium Patrick Van Kets
• France Alexandre Vardin
• France Stéphen Vincent
• Algeria Hassan Yebda
• Ivory Coast Zito

Former managers

• Mony Braustein (1945–46)
• ? (1946–47)
• Émile Rummelhardt (1947–51)
• Gaston Choulet (1951–52)
• Gabriel Corsaletti (1952–53)
• Camille Libar (1953–57)
• André Grillon (1957–64)
• René Dereuddre (1964–76)
• Alain Laurier (1976–79)
• Michel Rodriguez (1979–81)
• André Guttierez (1981–85)
• Bernard Deferrez (1985–86)
• Christian Gourcuff (Jun 86 – Jan 89)
• Christian Létard (Jan 1989 – Jan 94)
• Thierry Froger (Jan 1994 – May 97)
• Slavo Muslin (Jun 1997 – Nov 97)
• Marc Westerloppe (Nov 1997 – Nov 2000)
• Alain Pascalou (Nov 2000 – Dec 2000)
• Thierry Goudet (Dec 2000 – Feb 2004)
• Daniel Jeandupeux (Feb 2004 – Dec 2004)
• Frédéric Hantz (Dec 2004–07)
• Rudi Garcia (2007–08)
• Yves Bertucci (2008–09)
• Daniel Jeandupeux (2009)
• Arnaud Cormier (2009)
• Paulo Duarte (2009)
• Arnaud Cormier (2009–2011)
• Denis Zanko (2011–2013)
• Régis Beunardeau (2013)
• Stéphane Guédet (2013–2014)
• Alexandre Clément (2014–2015)
• Richard Déziré (2015–2020)
• Réginald Ray (2020)
• Didier Ollé-Nicolle (2020–2021)
• Cris (2021–2022)

Honours

• Division d'Honneur Ouest
  • Winners: 1961, 1965
• Division d'Honneur Maine
  • Winners: 2014
• Coupe Gambardella
  • Winners: 2004

References

References

1. link. (4 December 2009 .)
2. "L'épopée Sang et OR".
3. "Actualité – LE MANS FC est en Ligue 2 !".
4. (27 May 2020). "La Ligue 2 avec 22 clubs refusée par la FFF". foot-national.com.
5. (August 2025). "Djokovic becomes a part-owner of Ligue 2 club le Mans". Reuters.
6. (August 2025). "Felipe Massa, Kevin Magnussen, Novak Djokovic invest in Ligue 2 club le Mans through Brazilian firm". The New York Times.
7. "Le Mans FC squad". Perform Group.
8. "Équipe National". Le Mans FC.
9. (2 March 2020). "Le Mans - Ray : "Enclencher une nouvelle dynamique"". foot-national.com.
10. (28 May 2020). "Le Mans : Reginald Ray s'en va (off)". foot-national.com.
11. (1 June 2020). "National. Le Mans FC a trouvé son entraineur". footamateur.fr.
12. (17 May 2021). "National. Le Mans FC se sépare de Didier Ollé-Nicolle". footamateur.fr.