Montpellier

The FDI Stadium seats a modest 2,505.

The club started out as Cosmos Montpellier in 1982, became Montpellier Paillade Sporting Club six years later, and settled on Montpellier Handball only in 1992, the year it reached the top flight.

Europe came later and less often, which is why both continental titles carry weight. The 2002–03 EHF Champions League final went their way against Portland San Antonio, and in 2018 they beat HBC Nantes to add a second. Nikola Karabatić played through the middle of that golden era, leaving and returning across two spells before the 2013 title run, while Michaël Guigou stayed two decades, from 1999 to 2019, long enough to see the club go from newly promoted to serial champion.

Derby weekends belong to USAM Nîmes Gard, a fixture known locally as the Derby Occitan, with Paris Saint-Germain and Nantes supplying the sharper rivalries of the more recent trophy fights. None of it changes where the season still turns: back at the FDI Stadium, where 2,505 seats are rarely enough to hold everyone who wants in.