La Linguère

Penalties settled it in 2009, when La Linguère beat Casa Sport 4-2 from the spot after both legs finished goalless, giving Saint-Louis its only Senegal Premier League crown. Six Coupe du Sénégal wins sit alongside that title, four of them under the ASC Linguère name and two inherited from before the club existed at all: Espoir de Saint-Louis and AS Saint-Louisienne, the two city sides merged in 1969 on the orders of Lamine Diack, then in charge of youth and sport in Senegal. Seydina Oumar Sy gave the new club its name at the founding congress; the nickname that stuck with it, Les Samba Linguère, is the one still used in the French-language press today.

Babacar Ba belonged to the old Saint-Louisienne before the merger and stayed with what came after it — part of the side that beat Jaraaf 3-0 in the 1971 cup final, then its coach, its technical director, and later its president. Amara Traoré took the opposite route into the same office, going from player to the manager who delivered the 2009 title and, later, its president, before stepping down in June 2024.

The fall since has been steep. A fourth-place finish in 2015-16 gave way to a last-place season the following year, and only the aftermath of the Demba Diop stadium crush, which struck US Ouakam, kept La Linguère in the top flight that time. A promotion push in 2019-20 ended when the pandemic voided the season, and the club has since been playing out of Ligue 2, still short of a way back.

Two derbies still mark the calendar. Ndiambour, from Louga, supply the Derby du Nord, a rivalry drawn along the northern towns; Diambars, out of Saly on the Petite-Côte, bring the one Saint-Louis fans call the Derby Explosif.