Toulouse

Full name	Toulouse Football Club
Nickname(s)	TFC, le Téfécé, le Tef
Founded	1937 (defunct club) 1970 (current club)
Ground	Stadium Municipal Toulouse, Haute-Garonne France (Capacity: 35,472)
Chairman	Olivier Sadran
Manager	Alain Casanova
League	Ligue 1
2008-09	L1, 4th
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Toulouse Football Club is a French football team playing in the city of Toulouse, Haute-Garonne. TFC is also known as le Téfécé (pronounced [lə tefeˈse]) or le Tef ([lə ˈtɛf]).

[edit] History

The predecessor side to the club was founded in 1937 as Toulouse Football Club, but sold its players and its place in French Division 1 professional football to Red Star Paris in 1967. (Main article: Toulouse FC (1937))

The association was re-founded as Union Sportive Toulouse on May 25, 1970 and took on the juniors of Gascogne and ACE Mermoz-Bonnefoy in order to establish a solid player base. They began competition in Division 2 in the 1970-71 season, playing in red and white. In 1977 the club re-claimed the historical name of its predecessor and adopted new colours of purple and white. The team quickly improved and earned promotion to Division 1 in 1982, followed by qualification for participation in the UEFA Cup in 1984. Their best result to date came in the 1986-87 season with a third place finish and another turn in the UEFA Cup competition, including a well-remembered win on penalty kicks over Maradona's mighty Napoli.

Toulouse's supporters celebrating their team's qualification to UEFA Champions League 2007-08

A decline followed that saw the club relegated to play in D2 by 1994. Throughout the 90s they yo-yoed between D1 and D2 with the club in frequent financial difficulty. Their financial problems led to their being sent down in 2001 by the French federation and nearly losing their professional status. Exceeding all hopes Toulouse FC quickly returned to Ligue 1 play in the course of just two seasons. After some disappointing results in their first seasons back in Ligue 1, they managed to scrape a place in the preliminary round of the UEFA Champions League, finishing with a 3rd place.

Toulouse's route to the Champions League seemed to be fraught with obstacles, and at one point they were mathematically out of contention. However, in the stalemate with Nantes, they were awarded a win after the Breton crowd invaded the pitch in despair at les Canaris' poor display, which resulted in their renewed belief in the possibility of European football. In a good final day Téfécé beat Girondins de Bordeaux 3-1 (a hat-trick from Johan Elmander), which, when coupled with the losses of the other contenders and Lille's 93rd-minute equalizer against Rennes, saw Toulouse scrape through.

For the second match of the 2007-2008 season, Toulouse beat the Olympique Lyonnais 1-0 at the Stadium Municipal with a goal from Johan Elmander. After the victory against Olympique Lyonnais Toulouse struggled all season to avoid relegation. Their Ligue 1 was finally secured on the last day of the season with a 2-1 home win against Valenciennes.

The 2008-2009 season marked unexpected success for Toulouse. The club finished fourth in the Ligue 1 table with 64 points, and secured a spot in the new Europa League. After a difficult season the previous year in which the club struggled to avoid relegation, not much was expected of Toulouse. The 2008-2009 season also marked the emergence of striker André-Pierre Gignac, who led all scorers in Ligue 1 with 24 goals & was awarded a call-up to the French national team.

[edit] Stadium

Stadium Municipal

Toulouse play their home matches at the Stadium Municipal in Toulouse. Built in 1937, the stadium presently has a capacity of 35,472.^[1] The stadium was used in the 1998 World Cup.

[edit] Colours

The violet is a reference to one of two Toulouse nicknames: la Cité des violettes (the City of Violets), the second one being la Ville rose (the Pink City), which explains the colour of the third jersey. The team's logo displays the gold and blood-red Occitan cross, the symbol of Occitania, of which Toulouse is a historical capital.

[edit] Players

[edit] Current squad

As of September 10, 2009.^[2]

No. Position Player 1 GK Sébastien Hamel 2 DF Mohamed Fofana 3 DF Daniel Congré 4 DF Mauro Cetto (captain) 5 MF Paulo Machado 6 MF Antoine Devaux 7 FW Fodé Mansaré 8 MF Étienne Didot 10 FW André-Pierre Gignac 11 FW Luan Louzã 12 DF Cheikh M'Bengue 13 DF Dany Nounkeu 14 MF Pantxi Sirieix 16 GK Olivier Blondel 17 DF Jean-Joël Perrier-Doumbé

No. Position Player 19 FW Xavier Pentecôte 20 MF Mathieu Berson 22 MF Moussa Sissoko 23 DF Albin Ebondo 24 MF Oumar N'Diaye 25 MF Daniel Braaten 26 MF Adrien Regattin 27 MF Franck Tabanou 28 FW Ahmed Soukouna 29 MF Étienne Capoue 30 GK Yohann Pelé 33 GK Marc Vidal DF Jérémy Michel MF Alessane Touré FW Kévin Dupuis

[edit] U-21 squad

No. Position Player 33 DF Ryan Brown 34 GK Marin Ferry 35 DF Assane Karaboualy 37 MF Rémy Lacroix 38 DF Ewan Leduby

No. Position Player 40 DF Davron Askarov 39 DF Issa Makalou 42 FW Styves Morissette 43 MF Sébastien Vélez 47 FW Gabriel Vaz

[edit] Historic players

For a complete list of Toulouse FC players, see here

[edit] Managerial history

^[3]

[edit] Honours

• Ligue 2
  • Winners (3): 1953, 1982, 2003

• Coupe de France
  • Winners (1) : 1957

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Toulouse FC (1937)

[edit] External links

• (French) Official website
• (French) AllezTFC.Com
• (Polish) Polish website
• Toulouse formations at football-lineups.com