Fola Esch

Fola Esch waited eighty-three years between league titles. The first spell of success came early, four championships between 1918 and 1924 crowned by a league-and-cup double in 1923–24, and then the trophies stopped. It took until 2012–13 for the wait to end, and it ended in the most pointed way available: a 5–1 win over Jeunesse Esch settled the title. Two more championships followed, in 2014–15 and 2020–21, taking the club's total in the Luxembourg National Division to eight, alongside three cup wins from the 1920s and 1950s.

That win over Jeunesse mattered beyond the scoreline. The two clubs share Esch-sur-Alzette, and the Derby Eschois is the fixture the town organises its football calendar around. In the 1990s there was a proposal to merge the two sides into one; Fola turned it down, and the rivalry carried on as before.

Louis Pilot wore the shirt during a playing career that made his name in Luxembourgish football.

None of it traces back to a boardroom decision. Fola exists because an English teacher named Jean Roeder started a football club in Esch-sur-Alzette on 9 December 1906, the first the country had seen, and gave it the red-and-white stripes it still wears.