Not specially programmed to play for accession, AC Ajaccio has finally had an extraordinary season and its victory on Saturday during the last day against Toulouse (1-0) allows it to return to Ligue 1 for the fourth time in its history, eight years after leaving her.
The ACA in L1, who would have believed it last July? Not even the most optimistic supporters. Because the day after a painful 2020-2021 exercise where the club had obtained its maintenance late, on the evening of the 35th day, we wondered if it was still going to manage to hold the road in the antechamber of the elite.
Left with the 12th budget of L2 (8.5 million euros), a single recruit (Oumar Gonzalez, defector from Chambly) and a loan (Clément Vidal, arrived from Montpellier), the ACA simply bet on his training, running at full speed.
Yanis Cimignani and Tayrik Arconte thus signed pro and joined other pure products of the club like Vincent Marchetti, François-Joseph Sollacaro, Jean Botué or Mounaïm El Idrissy.
Within an almost unchanged group, it is this amalgam between a talented and daring youth and seasoned veterans (Mathieu Coutadeur, Gaëtan Courtet, Riad Nouri, Benjamin Leroy…) that allowed the ACA to come back to taste to L1 after his three previous stints, from 1967 to 1973, from 2002 to 2006 and from 2011 to 2014.
“We weren’t scheduled to go up,” admitted coach Olivier Pantaloni before the outcome on Saturday evening. “But I knew that with this team, we had the means to upset some. We took the matches one after the other and from the title of autumn champion, we announced the color, ”he added.
“We would never have thought we could achieve a result like that at the start of the season”, he exulted on Saturday at the microphone of beIN sport while the supporters of the François-Coty stadium, arch-full, invaded the field after lighting smoke bombs even before the final whistle has sounded.
“It’s a great group, he added, we have achieved results through solidarity, through strength of character. When you know, the means we have here is incredible. »
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Impassable Defense
Unbeaten since March 12 and the derby against Bastia, Ajaccio has above all shone with his state of mind, his cohesion and an impressive defense, by far the best in L2 with only 19 goals conceded in 38 matches, including 22 where his goal remained protected.
The attack shone less with a modest average of one goal per game (39 goals in 38 days), but that was enough to have a superb season, 20 years after the L2 championship title won in 2002 with Rolland Courbis and more than ten years after the last accession to the elite, already with Olivier Pantaloni in charge.
Since its demotion to L2 in 2014, the ACA had already come very close to a comeback at the end of the 2017-2018 season, where it had only been beaten in the accession play-offs, by Toulouse. Two years later, the Ajaccien club was also still in the race on the evening of March 7, when the 2019-2020 season was interrupted by the Covid.
The Corsicans were then third. The jump-offs for the climb had been canceled and only the first two (Lens and Lorient) had been promoted. “We had done everything to compete in the play-offs but in vain. A huge disappointment because I am convinced that we would have gone up to L1, ”said Christian Leca, the Ajaccien president.
“The accession would allow us to perpetuate the club over the next ten years,” added Mr. Leca. In the meantime, Pantaloni’s group now seems better equipped mentally to face the elite and their leaders next season. It will be necessary, because at the end of the season, the transition to 18 clubs will send four teams to the floor below.
Auxerre (3rd), Paris FC (4th) and Sochaux (5th) will play the accession play-offs, just like Quevilly-Rouen, at the bottom of the classification, which will try to avoid relegation to National.
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