Nîmes Olympique

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Please help improve this article by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.
This article has been tagged since March 2007.

Nîmes Olympique

Full name

Nîmes Olympique
Football Club

Nickname(s)

Les crocodiles

Founded

10 April 1937

Ground

Stade des Costières,
Nimes

Capacity

18,442

Chairman

Jean-Louis Gazeau

Manager

Régis Brouard

League

National

2005-2006

National, 6th





Home colours





Away colours

Nîmes Olympique is a football (soccer) team based in Nîmes, France, founded on April 10, 1937. Prior to this, it was known as Sporting Club Nîmois.

Nimes Olympique currently (as of 2006) plays in the Championnat National - the third level of French soccer. They have a fierce group of fans ("Ultras") known as the "Gladiators".

Their greatest achievement was winning Ligue 2 in the 1949/1950 season. They also won the Championnat National in 1997.

Former players include Éric Cantona, Laurent Blanc, Wilson Oruma, Mickaël Pagis, Cyril Jeunechamp and Bernard Boissier.

1 Sporting Club Nîmois
2 Nîmes Olympique
3 Famous players
4 External links

[edit] Sporting Club Nîmois

The Sporting Club Nîmois (SCN) was founded in 1901 by Henri Monnier, who, at the age of 21, had just returned from a 2 year trip to England. He decided to start a new team in Nimes, his home town. Originally, the team was for young Protestants only.

In 1908, the SCN played Olympique Cettois for the title of 'Champions of Languedoc'. Nîmes won, qualifying for the final phase of the French championship, which they lost to Olympique Marseille in the first round.

The club suspended activities due to World War I on April 15, 1919. In 1922, SCN absorbed a local rival, F.A. Nîmois.

The new team, still under the name of Sporting Club Nîmois, were runners-up in the South-East championship in 1925. In 1927, les Nîmois won a place in the highest championship, then known as the Division d'Honneur.

In October 1931, the then-president of the Republic of France, Gaston Doumergue, inaugurated the Jean Bouin stadium.

Due to financial problems, SCN abandoned their professional activities in 1937. Following efforts from local businessmen, the club moved to the district of Lozère-Gard in Nîmes, and was reformed as Nîmes Olympique.

[edit] Nîmes Olympique

[edit] Stadium

The team moved to the Stade des Costières de Nîmes on February 15, 1989, celebrating with a game featuring the French national team. A number of Dutch players including Dennis Bergkamp made guest appearances for Nimes.

The first league match at the stadium was on March 4 1989, against Montceau in a Ligue 2 game, with 3,647 spectators in attendance. The record attendance to date was 25,051, which was recorded in the 1991-1992 season, in a Ligue 1 game against Olympique Marseille. The French national team also played an international game against Greece, just before Euro 96, with an attendance of 23,420.

The standard capacity of the stadium is 18,482, due to security concerns.

[edit] Honours

Ligue 1 runners-up - 1958, 1959, 1960, 1968, 1972.
Ligue 2 champions - 1950.
Ligue 2 runners-up - 1991.
Championnat National champions - 1997.
Coupe de France finalists - 1958, 1961, 1996.
Coppa delle Alpi - 1971
Coupe Drago winners - 1956.
Coupe Gambardella winners - 1961, 1966, 1969, 1977.

[edit] Squad 2006/07

No.	Position	Player
1	GK	Cédric Duchesne
2	DF	Nicolas Rabuel
3	DF	Hervé Alicarte
4	DF	Jérémie Roumegous
5	DF	Christophe Dussart
6	DF	Paul Maisonneuve
7	MF	Ulrich Chavas
8	MF	Florian Fédèle
9	FW	Mickaël Colloredo
10	MF	Karim Dahou
11	FW	Stéphane Beyrac
12	MF	Romain Canalès
13	MF	Allann Petitjean

No.	Position	Player
14	MF	Cédric Horjak
15	DF	Benjamin Oliveras
16	GK	Sébastien Gimenez
17	FW	Zéphirin Zoko
18	MF	Erwan Quentin
19	MF	Lionel Gelly
21	DF	Johnny Ecker
22	FW	Benjamin Psaume
24	MF	Jean-Christophe Rouvière
	DF	Damien Jurado
	FW	Yoan Benyahia
	FW	Yassin El Azzouzi
	FW	Nicolas De Gea