Châteauroux

The team in Châteauroux traces back to a multi-sport club called La Berrichonne, formed in 1883, with a football section added in 1916. What is known today as Châteauroux took shape later, in 1935, when that football section merged with a separate local side, the Association Sportive de Châteauroux, folding a long-standing local rivalry into one club.

They play at the Stade Gaston-Petit, in front of up to 17,173 spectators, wearing blue and red. The nickname La Berri has stuck ever since.

Their best domestic finish came in the 1996–97 season, when they won Ligue 2 and went up to the top flight. The stay lasted one season; Châteauroux dropped straight back down and spent the following twenty years working through the lower divisions before returning to Ligue 2 in 2017, the same year they also won the Championnat National, the third tier, for a second time, having first taken it in 1993–94. The closest they came to a major trophy was the 2004 Coupe de France final, lost 1–0 to Paris Saint-Germain.

Florent Malouda came through this side, making his debut in 1997 and winning that Ligue 2 title.

Two decades: the gap between their one season in Ligue 1 and their next promotion back to the second tier.