Nantes may only have had its full name – the Football Club de Nantes Atlantique – since 1992, but the club’s real beginning was on April 21 1943 in a café in the centre of the war-torn city.
It was Marcel Saupin who called together the Presidents of Nantes’ six biggest football teams at the time and proposed a merger in order that “each little team becomes one great team.” At the end of World War II, the Football Club de Nantes was admitted into the northern second division where it would stay until 1963. On June 1 of that year, Nantes defeated Sochaux, finished second in its League and earned promotion to the first division. Unfortunately, the long-serving President Saupin died just 9 days after his side’s historic win and never saw Les Canaris kick a ball in the top flight.
In 1965 Nantes won the first of their eight French championships. In 1992, FC Nantes were relegated for financial irregularities, but they won an appeal against the decision and went on to play a 30th consecutive season in the first division. Nantes' crowning glory came in the 1995/96 season, when they started as rank outsiders and finished the season as champions with just a single defeat.
However, the 2004/05 season was the worst in the club’s history, as they saved their Ligue 1 status on the final day of the season. But it wasn’t just in sporting terms that they suffered. Captain Michaël Landreau led a call for the sacking of both Coach Loïc Amisse and President Jean-Luc Gripond. The club will start the 2005/06 season with new faces at every post including Serge Le Dizet as Coach and Rudi Roussillon as President.
