Lille Olympique Sporting Club

Lille Football Club is located in Lille, the largest city in northern France, the capital of the Pas-de-Calais region and the capital of the Nore department. The team was established in 1944 through a merger of two French clubs, Olympique Lillois (founded in 1902) and SC Fives (founded in 1901). The team's main early rival was Lens, and the two teams formed a "feud" relationship in the early years due to regional cultural reasons. Lille used to be a team good at creating fairy tales and miracles. Just one year after the team was founded, they won the Ligue 1 title in the 1945-46 season. They remained strong over the next 10 years, winning the Coupe de France five times and winning the Ligue 1 title for the second time in 1953-54. However, after winning the championship for the second time, Lille gradually began to decline. For decades, its performance has been difficult to improve. Not only did it never win the championship again, it was even relegated to the second division. Just when people were about to forget it, Lille miraculously came back to life. In the 2000-01 season, Lille, which had just returned to the first division, rushed into the third division and qualified for the European Champions Cup. In the 2005-06 season, Lille defeated 1999 Champions League champions Manchester United in the Champions League group stage, which indirectly caused Manchester United to be eliminated from the Champions League group stage for the first time in ten years. In the 2010-11 season, Lille won the club's third league trophy and its first in 57 years, setting a record for the longest interval between Ligue 1 titles. In the same season, Lille also won the French Cup. This was the first time since 1946 that the team had won the domestic league and French Cup double.