Cannes

Herbert Lowe, an English sportsman living on the Riviera, gathered a group of friends and gave Cannes a football side. They began in black and blue. The colours changed in 1905, when the club merged with Club Sportif de Cannes and took on the red and white it still wears. The nickname, Les Dragons, came later and from the map: the old ground, Stade Louis-Grosso, stood on the Avenue des Hespérides, and the dragon is Ladon, the guardian of the Hesperides in Greek myth.

The years that matter most came early. Cannes won the Coupe de France in 1932, beating RC Roubaix 1–0 in the final. A year later they were founder members of Division 1, the first season of professional football in France. They finished as runners-up to Olympique Lillois, having first topped their group after Antibes were disqualified for bribery.

After that came a long series of relegations from the top flight, in 1949, 1966, 1992 and 1998. Cannes dropped to the fourth tier in 2002 over financial problems and a failure to meet professional criteria. In 2014–15 the national finance watchdog, the DNCG, excluded the club because of debts estimated at €2 million. The professional company was liquidated, and an association led by Pierre Cancian re-founded the club in the 7th tier, among amateurs.

In 2024–25 Cannes played in Championnat National 2, Group C, and reached the semi-finals of the Coupe de France. They also finished high enough in the league to earn promotion to Ligue 3 for 2025–26. The local derby, against ES Cannet-Rocheville from the neighbouring commune of Le Cannet, is played again on level terms.

The name most tied to the club is Zinedine Zidane, who played here from 1988 to 1992 before leaving for Bordeaux.