Association Sportive de Saint-Etienne Loire (French pronunciation: [sɛ̃t‿etjɛn lwaʁ]), commonly known as A.S.S.E. (French pronunciation: [a.ɛs.ɛs.o]) or simply Saint-Etienne, is a professional football club based in Saint-Etienne in Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes, France. The club was founded in 1933 and plays in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. Saint-Etienne plays its home matches at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard.
Saint-Etienne have won a record ten Ligue 1 titles, as well as six Coupe de France titles, a Coupe de la Ligue title and five Trophee des Champions. Saint-Etienne has also won the Ligue 2 championship on three occasions. The club achieved most of its honours in the 1960s and 1970s when the club was led by managers Jean Snella, Albert Batteux, and Robert Herbin.
The team was last managed by Claude Puel and captained by Loic Perrin, who started his career at the club in 1996. Saint-Etienne is known as Les Verts meaning "the Greens" due to its home colours. The club's primary rivals are Olympique Lyonnais, based in nearby Lyon, with whom they contest the Derby Rhone-Alpes. In 2009, the club added a female section.
On 14 April 2021, the club's board of directors announced, in a public letter, that the club was up for sale.
History
Early history
AS Saint-Etienne was founded in 1919 by employees of the Saint-Etienne-based grocery store chain Groupe Casino under the name Amicale des Employes de la Societe des Magasins Casino (ASC). The club adopted green as its primary color mainly due to it being the principal colour of Groupe Casino. In 1920, due to the French Football Federation (FFF) prohibiting the use of trademarks in sports club, the club dropped "Casino" from its name and changed its name to simply Amical Sporting Club to retain the ASC acronym. In 1927, Pierre Guichard took over as president of the club and, after merging with local club Stade Forezien Universitaire, changed its name to Association sportive Stephanoise.
This page also has a version in other languages : Сент-Этьен (russian)