What is Behind the Rise of Gazelec Ajaccio?

In what has been a fairly unremarkable Ligue 2 season, there is one team that everyone keeps talking about. Despite being written off at the start of the campaign, GFC Ajaccio are extraordinarily still inside the promotion places, seemingly with a good chance of making it all the way up to the top flight. In terms of results, it’s been a season of surprises in Ligue 2, but ultimately the current top ten contains most of the sides that everyone back in August expected to be ‘up there’. Gazelec completely buck that trend, and their sustained pressure on the promotion places has been a complete shock.

Who are they?

Founded in 1910, they are the lesser-known Ajaccio club, overshadowed by their neighbours AC Ajaccio for a number of decades. Gazelec play their home matches at Stade Ange-Casanova which only has a capacity of 2,885 – due to renovations, the lowest in the whole of Ligue 2 by some distance. The pitch constantly ranks as one of the worst in the division, and facilities are extremely poor. The club shot to fame in 2012 while still in National thanks to a long run to the semi-finals of the Coupe de France, in addition to a fantastic promotion up to Ligue 2. However, they struggled in the 2nd tier the following campaign, eventually finishing rock bottom. At least the club managed to bounce back immediately, but based on their previous stint in Ligue 2, expectations were pretty low.

Pre-season favourites for the drop

Looking back at season previews, some predicted an 18th place finish. This was actually generous compared to the majority of pundits who thought they would flat out finish rock bottom again. The biggest concerns with GFC were a reliance on older players, a potential lack of goals, and a huge question mark about whether their backline (which had been extremely good in the National division) would be able to step up to Ligue 2 level successfully. There was a possibility of them having a strong home record, but most predictions were that they’d struggle desperately on the road. According to transfermarkt.com they have the lowest overall market value of any club in Ligue 2, and incredibly at the time of writing they still don’t have a single player worth more than £500,000!

The keys to their success.

So how on earth have they managed to get where they are despite having such a low budget and poor resources? Well, undoubtedly their home record is the main reason why they are currently inside the top three. Right now, their stats read 11-3-2 at Stade Ange-Casanova, with both defeats coming way back in August. Remarkably, nine of their 11 wins have been to nil, and in total GFC have conceded just 12 goals in front of their own fans. Stade Ange-Casanova has become a serious fortress and nobody likes to visit the place. For a start, it’s on Corsica which is an awkward trip anyway, plus the pitch has been awful. Combine that with a raucous atmosphere and fans who are ‘right on top’ of the players and it’s easy to see why they’ve been so strong at home.  GFC have only won four matches away, but they’ve been competitive enough, losing only one match since the end of November, so have been able to go on a great run at a crucial time.

Players and coach

Often when a team ‘overperforms’ you tend to find that one or two key individuals have been largely responsible. But that definitely isn’t the case with GFC. In fact, if you were asked to pick out who their best player actually is, you would struggle to give a proper answer. So far this season, no player has scored more than six goals for them, yet a total of 14 different players have managed to find the back of the net.

It’s exactly the same in terms of assists, not a single player has supplied more than three, yet a total of 13 different players have all contributed in this department. GFC have a bunch of lads who just work so hard for each other, and teamwork is a massive part of their game. Not having any star players means they aren’t over-reliant on anyone, which in many ways is a good thing.

Of course though, there have been some noteworthy performers. David Ducourtioux has now turned 37, but the experienced ex-VAFC man has been vital for them in a number of ways. His versatility is crucial but for the most part he has marshalled the midfield really well this season. Fellow ex-Valenciennes man Gregory Pujol has weighed in with four goals and three assists, and is another whose presence on the field has really helped them. It could have been a risky strategy to rely on the older players, but another ‘dinosaur’ they signed, Jeremie Brechet, has proven to be rock solid at the back. Going with experienced older players who have played many years in Ligue 1 has definitely worked for GFC. Their experience has had a wonderful influence on the rest of the team such as Yohann Andreu and Pablo Martinez, and has really aided the development of the overall squad.

Huge credit has to go to coach Thierry Laurey who has worked wonders with this team. He achieved a superb ‘bounceback’ promotion, and to get them into this current position has been remarkable. He looks like a really astute manager, knows when to attack, when to defend and comes up with some great gameplans. Above all, his organisation is brilliant and a clear ability to generate such superb team bonding has to be commended.

Can they actually obtain promotion?

With only seven games left they have a four point cushion from 4th place, albeit with a fairly poor goal difference (+7). The bad news is that they actually end with a run of 3 out of 4 away games. However, only matches against Sochaux and Auxerre look potentially tricky. All their other fixtures are against sides currently in the bottom half, so it’s quite realistic that they could go up.

One final reason why they have done so well is because the overall standard of Ligue 2 is quite poor. With the exception of Troyes, no other sides seem to be able to generate consistent winning runs. Simply put, it’s a poor crop of teams this year which gives someone like GFC this sort of chance.

However, promotion might not be a good thing for the club. They clearly don’t have the facilities or stadium to meet Ligue 1 standards, so yet again we would probably see a legal battle between a club and the LFP over whether they would even be allowed to go up. Even if Gazelec were granted promotion, to be brutally honest they would do remarkably well to obtain even 20 points in Ligue 1. Promotion could set back the club in a similar way to what happened with Arles or Istres. But should they manage to finish in the top three this season then nobody could ever take that away from them. The sheer magnitude of that potential achievement really can’t be stressed highly enough.