Auxerre, Sunday May 29, at the stroke of 8:10 p.m. The whole city has its eyes riveted on the fateful play-off match in Saint-Etienne, which must determine whether the Burgundy team will return to the elite of French football. The whole town, except Guy Roux, the living legend of the Association de la jeunesse auxerroise (AJA).
The club, which he coached between 1961 and 2005, has just scored a goal. His heart races, so the octogenarian gets up from the sofa, puts on sneakers and begins to wander around his pavilion. You have to bring the stress down. “I came back for extra time”, will he tell a few days later. At 9:48 p.m., Guy Roux can finally breathe: after the suspense of the penalty shootout, AJA is back in Ligue 1.
Two and a half months have passed and the big day has arrived. Sunday August 14, the SCO Angers presents itself at the Abbé-Deschamps stadium, in Auxerre. On the faces of the supporters, the smiles are radiant. “In my high school, people are for PSG, Lyon, Marseille, Saint-Etienne, I am the only one to support AJA. They stopped winnowing me since May”savors Camille, 15, from Seine-et-Marne.
The light at the end of the tunnel
Ten years ago, AJA had been relegated to Ligue 2 in this same stadium and the distress of Auxerre then contrasted with the joy of the Montpellier, crowned champions of France. This ascent is the light at the end of the tunnel.
In the meantime, this historic French club (a French championship title, four French Cups, a UEFA Cup semi-final, etc.) has had gloomy years, even coming close to descending into the third division. in 2017. Who knows what would have happened to AJA if Chinese businessman James Zhou had not bought the club in 2016 and invested to regain Ligue 1?
Author of the decisive goal of the first promotion of the club in the elite in 1980, Lucien Denis feels today a particular excitement. “Historically, people came to Abbé-Deschamps to see the small eat the big. This year, we felt a very strong identification with the team., underlines the former striker, who was the voice of AJA for more than two decades on the airwaves of RMC. By cutting the hedge in his garden, Mr. Denis could also admire the Abbé-Deschamps stadium from his swimming pool.
Between the end of the 2021-2022 season and the start of the 2022-2023 financial year, the Auxerre temple hosted four consecutive sold-out matches. Better, this season, the 9,000 subscriber mark (more than half the stadium’s capacity) has already been crossed. A record, and by far in the history of the club. “The best years, when we played the Champions League, we were around 6,500”locates Baptiste Malherbe, the general manager and executive president of the AJA.
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