The Association Sportive Nancy-Lorraine was born in 1967 after the city’s public answered a call to return professional football to the region – absent since the folding of FC Nancy in the spring of 1964.
It was during a Coupe de France clash between Besançon and Lille – held in Nancy – that a pamphlet was distributed calling for an expression of interest for a new team. The drive became known as BP17 (Post Office Box 17) and was an unprecedented success. 18,000 letters of support were sent and around FF 50,000 were raised. The Mayor’s office threw in another FF 25,000 and Nancy got their football team.
The ASNL were promoted to Division One for the first time in 1970 and established themselves in France’s elite – winning their only silverware in the 1978 Coupe de France with a 1-0 win over Nice in the final thanks to a Michel Platini goal. However, the post-Platini era proved difficult and Nancy were finally relegated to the second division in 1987. Since then, Nancy have yo-yoed between France’s top two football divisions and were relegated in 2000 on goal-difference.
In 2003, current Coach Pablo Correa took over the helm and helped the club avoid relegation to the third division. Two season’s later and the Lorraine-based outfit won the Ligue 2 crown for the fourth time in their history (1975, 1990, 1998 and 2005), earning promotion back to the top flight.
