Football Club de Nantes

Nantes were born in 1943, in the middle of the occupation, and invented a way of playing: José Arribas' jeu à la nantaise, one touch collective football that made the Maison Jaune a school. The Canaries count eight French championships between 1965 and 2001, the eight stars they carry at the neck, and the 1994/95 title was won with thirty two league games unbeaten, a record that stood for decades. From the Jonelière academy came Deschamps, Desailly, Karembeu and Makélélé, half a skeleton of world champions. The twenty first century brought grey years and a grief without a name, Emiliano Sala, lost to the Atlantic in 2019, but also the 2022 French Cup, which returned silverware to the Beaujoire twenty one years on.