Espoir Savalou

Espoir Savalou go into this season chasing the same target that has defined the last few years: a top-four finish in the Championnat National, the level they reached in 2021–22 and again in 2024–25. The club from Savalou has never lifted the league title or the Coupe du Bénin, and its history reads more as a series of near-misses, in 2008–09, when a ninth-place finish sent it down.

The upturn traces back to the captain Uche, who arrived at the club for the 2018–19 season and turned into the league's most reliable finisher, topping the scoring charts in 2019–20 with 19 goals, matching that tally in 2021, and adding 17 more in 2021–22. Around him the club built the results that mattered most to its own supporters, the Sohaboys and Sohavis, none more than the 2022 win over Buffles du Borgou while Buffles sat top of the table.

Management has not always settled. Patrice Lair took charge in 2009 and lasted barely a month. Home games are played in front of 2,500 at the Stade Municipal de Savalou, in the club's blue and white.

Through it all, Uche has remained the constant: signed as a squad player, he stayed to captain the side and to carry its attack through three separate scoring titles, the name most associated with whatever Espoir Savalou has achieved on a football pitch.