Toulouse FC

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Toulouse FC

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

2007-08

Ligue 1, 17th





Home colours





Away 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 [tefeˈse]) or le Tef.

1 History
2 Stadium
3 Colours
4 Players
- 4.1 Current squad
  - 4.1.1 U-21 Squad
  - 4.1.2 Players out on loan
5 Transfers 2007-2008
- 5.1 Historic players
6 Managerial history
7 Honours
8 References
9 See also
10 External links

[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.

[edit] Stadium

Stadium of Toulouse

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 away jersey. The team's logo displays the gold and blood-red Occitan cross, the symbol of Occitania, which Toulouse is a historical capital of.

[edit] Players

[edit] Current squad

Numbers for the Ligue 1, as of August 10, 2007.^[2]

No.	Position	Player
1	GK	Rudy Riou
2	DF	Mohamed Fofana
3	DF	Daniel Congré
4	DF	Dominique Arribagé
5	DF	Jérémy Mathieu
6	DF	Jon Jönsson
7	FW	Fodé Mansaré
8	MF	Laurent Batlles
9	FW	Johan Elmander
10	FW	Bryan Bergougnoux
11	FW	Santos
12	DF	Cheikh M'Bengue
13	DF	Albin Ebondo
14	MF	Pantxi Sirieix
15	MF	Paulo César

No.	Position	Player
16	GK	Nicolas Douchez
17	MF	Fabinho
18	FW	Kévin Dupuis
19	MF	Salim Arrache (on loan from Olympique Marseille)
20	MF	Achille Emana
21	FW	André-Pierre Gignac
22	MF	Moussa Sissoko
23	DF	Eduardo (on loan from Corinthians)
24	DF	Hérita Ilunga
25	MF	Nicolas Dieuze (Captain)
28	DF	Mauro Cetto (on loan from Nantes)
30	GK	Alan Mermillod
31	MF	Etienne Capoue
?	DF	Issoumaila Dao

[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
39	DF	Issa Makalou
41	MF	Oumar N'Diaye

No.	Position	Player
42	FW	Styves Morissette
43	MF	Sebastien Velez
44	MF	Etienne Capoue
45	FW	Kévin Dupuis
47	FW	Gabriel Vaz

[edit] Players out on loan

No.	Position	Player
17	MF	Alexandre Bonnet at CS Sedan
48	DF	Walid Cherfa at Tours FC
21	DF	Alsény Camara at Rodez FC
	FW	Xavier Pentecôte at SC Bastia
	FW	Pavel Fořt at FC Brussels
	FW	Jean-Louis Akpa-Akpro at FC Brussels
19	MF	Nabil Taïder at Stade Reims

[edit] Transfers 2007-2008

In:

No.	Position	Player
23	MF	Eduardo (on loan from Corinthians)
1	GK	Rudy Riou (from FC Istres)
30	GK	Alan Mermillod (from Saint-Étienne)
24	DF	Hérita Ilunga (from Saint-Étienne)
28	DF	Mauro Cetto (on loan from Nantes)
6	DF	Jon Jönsson (from Elfsborg)
21	FW	Andre-Pierre Gignac (from FC Lorient)

Out:

No.	Position	Player
--	GK	Damien Rascle (on trial at Kilmarnock FC)
--	GK	Benoît Benvegnu (to Amiens SC)
--	DF	Lucien Aubey (to RC Lens)
--	MF	Thomas Ayasse (to Stade Reims)
--	MF	Anthony Robic (to Tours FC)
	MF	Kévin Constant (to LB Châteauroux)