Fenix Toulouse Handball

In 1998, a Toulouse side playing under the name Spacer's de Toulouse beat Montpellier Handball in the final of the Coupe de France.

That change of name was not the last. Founded in 1964 as Association sportive des établissements aéronautiques de Toulouse, tied to the city's aeronautical works, the club passed through Stade Toulousain, Sporting Toulouse 31, Spacer's de Toulouse and Toulouse Union Handball before settling on Fenix Toulouse Handball in 2011, the identity behind the nickname Les Fenix and the blue-and-yellow colours it plays in now.

Claude Onesta belongs to the club's earlier decades in a way few others do: he played there from 1968 to 1987, then stayed on as coach until 2001, carrying the side through more than thirty years on one bench or another. Anouar Ayed's mark is more recent and more precise, 1,204 goals scored between 2004 and 2013.

Continental football has stretched to a single run: as Sporting Toulouse 31 in 1998–99, the club reached the quarter-finals of the EHF Cup Winners' Cup, putting out Olse Merksem and Showbizcity Aalsmeer before RK Vardar ended the run.

The fixture that still matters most is closer to home. Montpellier Handball sits little more than an hour down the motorway, and matches between the two are known as the Derby d'Occitanie.