Youngest team in Europe
©IMAGO
Anyone who is under contract with a professional association at the age of 23 generally goes through as a talent. At RC Strasbourg Alsace, you are already one of the most experienced players at this age. Just four professionals in the French first division team are older – 22 players could still play in a U23. The takeover of the Blueco investor alliance, which also belongs to the majority shares at Chelsea in 2023, has fundamentally changed the organization of the association. After one and a half difficult years, sporting success is now moving in. With the youngest team in Europe’s top 10 leagues, the best placement has been waving in 45 years.
It didn’t look good in autumn. Liam Rosenior had taken over the team from Patrick Vieira after last season, the table-14. The relegation could only prevent the descent. A big change followed with twelve new additions and 17 departures and it took the team to sort itself. After a 0-0 against Stade Reims, Strasbourg slipped to 14th place in early December, just one point from the relegation places. “Rosenior took a while to find the right balance. After starting the season with a chain of three, he switched back to a chain of four and later,” explains Joachim Durand, Content Manager at Transfermarkt.FR.
Strasbourg only found its rhythm in mid -December and has been one of the most formed teams in Europe since then. Only one of the last 13 league games was lost and 32 out of 39 possible points were won. In the top 5 leagues, only Paris Saint-Germain, the AS Rome and FC Bayern were more successful (for statistics). In the 13 games mentioned, “Les Bleus” conceded just eight goals and played five games at zero in the meantime. Rosenior shows that concrete does not necessarily have to be touched for a good defensive. “He has a large proportion of the success of Strasbourg. From the beginning, he had his own ideas of the game: offensive with a lot of intensity and high pressing. He worked, researched and tested players in various positions. And now he has finally found the formula for success.”
RC Strasbourg and the cooperation with Chelsea: successful – but how long?
In addition to the undoubtedly good work by coach Rosenior, the start of the Blueco consortium around Chelsea-Boss Todd Boehly is a key reason for the successful season. Already at the takeover in the summer of 2023 there was talk of a “new chapter” and “sustainable investments in the growth of the club”. In 2023/24, 60.7 million euros were invested in newcomers, this season it was 55.4 million euros – previously the highest amount was EUR 15.75 million (2018/19).
The orientation on the transfer market is clear: young players should be obliged, trained in Ligue 1 and ideally sold to FC Chelsea later. In return, expensive new additions to the blues, which are also very young and talented in most cases, are transferred to Strasbourg in order to maintain game practice. In the past two years, five players have taken the direct path from London to Alsace, including goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic, midfield strategist Andrey Santos and the right wing in Saudi Arabia-the three most valuable newcomers in the history of RC Strasbourg.
The cooperations also pays off beyond direct transfers. “Every player who comes to Strasbourg knows that Chelsea will observe him and that if he could take good performances, he could be signed there. This is exactly the advantage for Chelsea. They send young players to Strasbourg to further develop them and also select the best players to strengthen their own team,” says Durand.
One of these candidates is the 19 -year -old central defender Mamadou Sarr, who came to Strasbourg in the summer of Olympique Lyon and is likely to move to the English partner club at the end of the season. And there are also rumors about other regular players who leave a good impression this season. Central trainer Emanuel Embha (22) is the best scorer with twelve goals and increased its market value in the past update to 20 million euros. Habib Diarra is the captain of the team at just 21 years. And right -wing Dilane Bakwa (22) drew attention to himself with four goals and eight templates and should already be on the paper of Eintracht Frankfurt.
Seven game days before the end of the season, Strasbourg lies in sixth place on the Ligue 1 with 46 points and has only four points behind in second place. The best placement in recent club history was a sixth place in the 2021/22 season, for an even better positioning you have to go back to the most successful time in club history at the end of the 1970s. The only championship title 1978/79 also dates from this time.
The RC Strasbourg squad is an average of 22.7 years old.
But how sustainable is the current success if half of the team is only on the go to the big cooperation partner in the Premier League? “It is difficult to say whether Strasbourg has a say in the selection of the players who want to keep it. The club runs the risk of being dependent on the wishes of Chelsea. And in the past the club has not done very well with sales,” says Durand.
At the same time, criticism in the fan camp and in the media is apparently limited. Unlike in Germany, where the associations are protected by the 50+1 regulation of the DFL from the start of financially strong owners and projects such as RB Leipzig are heavily criticized by working with partner clubs such as Red Bull Salzburg, this type of club tour in France is used to. Although there were very negative voices after the start of Blueco, they were primarily due to the sporting failure of last season.
“Strasbourg was seen as a training center of FC Chelsea or as a pool of players who did not want the club,” confirms Durand. “But this season has changed all of this. First, the transfer market last summer showed that Chelsea Strasbourg could not neglect and that the partnership can enable the club to commit good players. And then the good results, especially in 2025, have confirmed that Strasbourg can be successful thanks to Chelsea. So the discourse has changed and has become more positive.”
