Football Club Sochaux-Montbéliard (; commonly referred to as FCSM or simply Sochaux) is a French association football club based in the city of Montbéliard. The club was founded in 1928 and currently plays in Championnat National, the third tier of French football, after having been administratively relegated from Ligue 2 in the 2022–23 season, despite a 9th place finish. Sochaux plays its home matches at the Stade Auguste Bonal, located within the city.
Sochaux was founded by Jean-Pierre Peugeot, a prominent member of the Peugeot family, and is one of the founding members of the first division of French football. The club has won both Ligue 1 and the Coupe de France twice and have also won the Coupe de la Ligue. Sochaux's last honour came in 2007 when the club, under the guidance of Alain Perrin, defeated favourites Marseille 5–4 on penalties in the 2007 Coupe de France Final. Sochaux's colours are gold and navy blue.
Sochaux is known for its youth academy, which has regularly finished in the top ten rankings of youth academies in France (fourth in 2010). The most successful team in the academy is the under-19 team, which has won the Coupe Gambardella twice, in 1973 and 2007. In 2010, Sochaux finished runners-up to Metz in the 2010 edition of the competition. The academy has produced several notable talents, such as Yannick Stopyra, El-Hadji Diouf, Jérémy Ménez, Bernard Genghini and Benoît Pedretti, among others. The club were a regular in the top flight, until relegation in 2014.
History
Football Club Sochaux-Montbéliard was founded in 1928 under the name Football Club Sochaux by Jean-Pierre Peugeot, a director of Peugeot, a French car manufacturing company. Peugeot sought to create a football club for the leisure time of the company's workers. He installed Louis Maillard-Salin as the club's first president, and made Maurice Bailly the club's first manager. Bailly was also a member of the team. Sochaux played its first match on 2 September 1928 against the reserve team of local club AS Montbéliard. The club was inserted into the lowest level of league football in the Franche-Comté region and played its first league match three weeks later winning 12–1.
Peugeot was among the first to advocate for the professionalisation of French football and, in 1929, went as far as to admit to paying his players, which was strictly forbidden during this time. The subsequent recruitment of several French internationals and players from abroad led to Sochaux gaining a stranglehold on the region easily disposing of local rivals AS Montbéliard and AS Valentigney. In June 1930, Montbéliard decided to merge with Sochaux to form the club that exists today. The following month, the National Council of the French Football Federation voted 128–20 in support of professionalism in French football. With Peugeot being a strong advocate for professionalism, Sochaux were among the first clubs to adopt the new statute and, subsequently, became professional. In the league's inaugural season, Sochaux finished 3rd in its group. The club's final position was later moved to 2nd after Antibes, the champions of the group, was disqualified from the league for suspected bribery.
In the 1934–35 season, Sochaux captured its first league title finishing one point ahead of Strasbourg. Led by Uruguayan manager Conrad Ross, as well as captain Étienne Mattler, known as Le Lion de Belfort, and strikers Roger Courtois and Bernard Williams, Sochaux dominated the league losing only four times. Two seasons later, the same team, with the addition of goalkeeper Laurent Di Lorto and the Swiss duo of André Abegglen and Maxime Lehmann, Sochaux won its first Coupe de France title. The club faced league rivals Strasbourg in the final and defeated the Alsatians 2–1 courtesy of goals from Williams and the Argentine Miguel Angel Lauri. Ross finished his career at Sochaux by winning another league title in 1938. After the 1938–39 season, Ross and several players departed the club to play and manage abroad due to the onset of World War II. The non-deserters were, subsequently, called into action to fight with the French Army, which ultimately caused the club to limit its aspiring ambitions.