Formed 1913
Stade Nungesser, 43 bis, avenue de Reims 59300 Valenciennes.
Valenciennes left the ranks of professional football at the end of the season 1993-94, after a tenure of 60 years. Along with Lens and Lille one of the hotbeds of football in the north, Valenciennes experienced twenty four seasons to top-flight football. The last appearance in D1 coincided with the Valenciennes-Marseille affair. We must pay hommage to a player who dared to tell the truth : Jacques Glassmann. Since this murky period, Valenciennes still search after their past glories (now who does that remind you of ?).
D2 champions : 1972, 1976 & 1992.
Third in D1 in 1964/65 & 1965/66, the era of Masnaghetti, Sauvage, Guinot, Bonnel, Piumi and pre-Jean-Claude Bras in 1966.
Lost the 1951 cup final 0-3 to Strasbourg 0-3 whilst still a D2 club.
Last season Valenciennes were in the promotion hunt until falling away spectacularly in the last few games. Despite their billing as one of the pre-season promotion favourites, Valenceiennes have started the new term badly. The win at Raon-l'Etape could be prehaps a turning point. Inter-season saw a dozen or so departures with the same number arriving, including Bedenik (Lens), Bouquet (Valence), Ferreira & Gaci (Wasquehal), Garcia (Notts County) and Massot (Nîmes).
Coach is ex-goalkeeper Ludovic Batelli, who played alongside a certain Jean-Pierre Papin.
The ewo sides have met in D1 and D2 thirty-eight times, (18 wins Red Star, 5 draws & 15 losses). In reality the clubs have met thirty nine times, but during the season 1990-91 the match at Stade Bauer, won 2-0 by Red Star with goals from Sergueï Rodionov, was erased from the record books. Red Star had included in their line up Alain Gunia, signed from Reims following the latters' demise. However, following the tellow cards picked up by Gunia whilst still at Reims, Valenciennes claimed that Gunia was illegible for the match and should have been serving his suspension. After five monthes of appeals & counter-appeals the League decided to replay the match. Valenciennes won the match at Bauer on March 21st 1991 1-0, before losing by the same score ten days later at home, watched by the cameras of Eurosport. A point to note is that the goal was scored by a young Steve Marlet, his first for the club at senior level.
On May 26th 1956 Red Star were crushed 9-1 at home.
On November 17th 1984, within half an hour of the kick-off Red Star were crucified by a young center-forwards. Jean-Pierre Papin scored three times, the reply from Red Star coming from current Metz captain & international Sylvain Kastendeuch. That day a striker was born, despite the efforts of the Red Star goalkeeper François Lemasson. Papin notched his first hat-trick in D2. Georges Eo, coach declared at the final whistle, " We came up against a very good Valenciennes side, and they beat a poor Red Star. Again, Lemasson played well, but we won't meet many sides like Valenciennes, with a goalscorer like that".
Red Star : Lemasson, Faury, Kedadouche, Dubois, Aniol, Leverrier (Kutermark), Séguy, Kastendeuch, Lecornu (Amorfini), Rached, Lechantre.
G. Valck
Why not visit the Valenciennes Internet site at: http://home.nordnet.fr/~jwozniak/vafc/ (French only)