🇫🇷 Brest’s improbable rise shows French clubs there is another way
Last year, Les Pirates were fighting relegation. Now they're in the Champions League!
As recently as January 2023, Brest were merely concerned with keeping their place in Ligue 1.
Stade Brestois 29, as the Brittany-based club is officially known, faced the prospect of relegation from France’s top division until the appointment of Eric Roy, a manager who hadn’t coached at the professional level for 12 years.
Now, Les Pirates are preparing for life in the Champions League after securing qualification to Europe’s premier club competition for the first time last season.
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Brest aren’t the first French underdogs to reach the Champions League in recent times (see Lens in 23/24 and Rennes in 20/21), but their rise has been especially remarkable.
In a French football landscape dominated by Paris Saint-Germain, Brest have shown there is another way.
