Rodez goalkeeper Lionel Mpasi was helpless as Hamel’s shot, taken from 54.7 metres out, flew over his head and into the back of the net. It is the third-furthest goal scored in Ligue 2 in the past decade. Only Bendjaloud Youssouf (54.9m) and Junior Olaitan (56.9m) have scored goals from further out since the start of the 2014/15 season. 

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An audience for Hamel’s audacity

There were plenty of fans in attendance at the Charléty stadium to witness the stunning goal. Paris FC made headlines after announcing at the start of November that they would be allowing free entry for all of their games this season. The stadium, which is often only a fraction full, has drawn big crowds since the start of the initiative. 

“This is a major first for a professional football club in Europe and indeed the world. Although a free-seat model was recently launched in Germany, it only concerns a limited number of seats in the stadium, and is not deployed for all matches, including those of the women’s team,” the Parisian club said in a press release announcing the new measure.

GFFN | Luke Entwistle

Guilavogui, who has seven caps for the Guinean national team, scored 15 goals in 32 appearances for Paris FC last season. Following weeks of negotiations, an agreement between the club has now finally been found with Le Sang et Or set to splash €4m on the forward, who was approaching the final year of his contract. Guilavogui will sign a contract that will tie him to Lens until the summer of 2027. 

Champions League football awaits Lens next season, and the club are therefore looking to add strength and depth to a squad that finished second in Ligue 1 last season. The signing of Guilavogui also comes amidst Red Bull Leipzig’s interest in Loïs Openda, Lens’ top-scorer last season. 

GFFN | Luke Entwistle

In two seasons in the capital, the Rennes youth academy graduate established himself as a consistent fixture in the starting eleven, making 71 appearances in all competitions. 

According to Le Parisien, the former French youth international has moved for a transfer fee of €1.8m. With his new club, the 24-year-old will notably take part in the qualifying stages for the Champions League, with the team having just won their sixth consecutive Croatian title.

Bernauer arrived at Paris FC after impressing with Le Mans in the third tier, and signed for €200k. Although he was deployed as a right-back to start with, he was particularly impressing after being moved into the middle of Thierry Laurey’s defence. During his time at the club, he also chipped in with two goals and four assists.

Paris FC, who are usually contender for a promotion spot to Ligue 1, are having a troubled season, and are only tenth in the Ligue 2 standings. With Laurey out of contract this June, Paris FC have been looking for a replacement coach early on.

Furlan has reportedly been in talks with Paris FC since February. The 65-year-old manager is a free agent since his dismissal from the Auxerre dugout in October. Furlan has a reputation for being a expert when it comes to bringing a Ligue 2 team into Ligue 1, and has done so five times already: with Troyes (2005, 2012, 2015), Brest (2019) and Auxerre (2022). Paris FC have not played in the French top tier since 1979.

GFFN | Bastien Cheval

The Audoniens will not be facing their Ligue 2 nemeses. Instead, they play against a relative newcomer to the upper echelons of Parisian football, Paris 13 Atletico, who were promoted to the third tier for the first time in their history last season. Les Gobelins will not be able to play at their original home ground in the 13th Arrondissement of Paris, Stade Boutroux (soon to be named France’s first Stade Pelé), due to regulation issues.

It will nonetheless be a Parisian derby, with the two opposing teams representing contrasting histories and identities. More importantly, the two clubs have had contrasting fortunes in the Championnat National (third division) this season with Red Star hoping to gun for promotion to Ligue 2 in one of tightest third tier seasons to date, whilst Paris 13 stare down the impossibility of escaping the second to last spot in a league with six relegation places.

Local derbies and rivalries are a rare occurrence in modern French football, with a Parisian derby in fact being the last one-city fixture that took place in the top tier between Paris Saint-Germain and now-fourth tier Racing Club de France in 1989. 

Paris is in fact one of the only cities in France, along with Ajaccio, that has upheld the kind of city derbies that are commonplace in English and European football. This is in part due to the regionalised nature of the French football league structure, its roots partly coming from the fascist Vichy regime’s creation of national leagues during the Second World War, as well as the regionalised financing of teams. 

Whilst Paris Saint-Germain briefly played Paris FC on multiple occasions in the 1970s before and after their merger and schism into two clubs, their rivalry is almost considered as vacant by most observers, the pair neither having a historical-rooted hatred for one another nor an identity-clash that puts one at odds with the other. There is also simply the fact that the two sides rarely play one another in official competition (friendlies do not count).

Instead, Paris FC and Red Star FC have led the way in the fiercest Parisian derby of recent times. It is a quintessential opposition. Paris FC is a club that split from Paris Saint-Germain in 1972 and are partly owned by the Kingdom of Bahrain since 2020, playing in the 20,000-seater Stade Charléty on the southern edge of Paris. Red Star were a club formed in 1897 by to-be FIFA president Jules Rimet, now owned by American investment firm 777 Partners since 2022, playing in an 109-year old Stade Bauer in the Northern suburbs of Paris. 

It is a rivalry which is also politically charged, with Paris FC’s ultra groups having overt links to a right-wing political past, and Red Star very much a club with a left-wing, socialist/communist suburban identity. This political opposition drives the most violent aspects of the rivalry, with a rooted past within the conflict between the Auteuil and Boulogne ultra-groups at Paris-Saint Germain. The pair previously met in Red Star’s last season in Ligue 2 in 2018/19 which saw a 94th-minute equaliser for L’Étoile Rouge at Stade Charléty (1-1) before PFC got their revenge in the return fixture (0-2).

Créteil, a south-eastern suburban club, are also a team which has played Paris FC and Red Star on many an occasion in the lower tiers. It is a derby fought more on geographical lines than sporting competition or political hatred, but their status in the fourth tier currently means they will not encounter the other larger Parisian entities.

One of the most historical derbies in Parisian and French football could also be set for a return from next season. If Racing Club de France are promoted to the third tier, they could reignite the original Paris derby with Red Star. Racing, who were the original tenants at the Parc des Princes, now ply their trade at the equally historic Stade Yves du Manoir in the Parisian suburb of Colombes, and were formative members of the French top tier along with Red Star. The pair have both won five Coupe de France titles, with Racing doing the league/cup double in 1936. Whilst the redstarmen have not faced the racingmen in recent years, they have the sporting, historical and geographical basis to reignite a legitimate and fierce rivalry dating back to the the 1930s. 

With Paris FC nowhere near Ligue 1, we may have to content ourselves with Parisian derbies in the lower tiers for now (probably for the better). However, if you look deeper into Ligue 2 and the Championnat National, there are still historical teams and rivalries – with rising clubs with new identities such as Paris 13 always being added into the mix. Paris 13 Atletico’s next match against Red Star FC on Tuesday shows that Parisian football beneath the perceived monolith of PSG is still as vibrant as ever. And it could be set to get even better in the near future.

GFFN | George Boxall

The brother of Josuha, who spent time on loan with Les Girondins in the second half of their ultimately ill-fated Ligue 1 campaign last season, Guilavogui has eight goals in the second tier this campaign.

Bordeaux president Gérard Lopez had indicated to the outlet on Sunday that the team was looking to strengthen its attacking options – the 24-year-old Guinea international found the net 14 times in all competitions last season, and is under contract until the end of next season.

Paris FC, however, have no intention of letting go of Guilavogui, much less to a potential promotion rival. The team from the capital currently sit in eighth, six points behind second-place Bordeaux, with only the top two teams in the division earning promotion to the top flight this season.

GFFN | Raphaël Jucobin

In the young U20 French international, Nantes reportedly sign one of Ligue 2’s most exciting left-sided prospects. The Paris FC youth product appeared in 11 Ligue 2 games, registering one assist with the eighth-placed side. Ouest-France report that several Ligue 1 clubs, including Marseille and Strasbourg, kept a close eye on Hadjam last season. The outlet added that Hadjam signed this Saturday morning a four-and-a-half year deal with Antoine Kombouaré’s side. The transfer is estimated at around €350k. Hadjam’s Paris FC contract was due to expire next June.

GFFN | Bastien Cheval

The deal, on the outset, is a little surprising: under contract with ASSE until 2025, Maçon has made 12 appearances for Laurent Batlles struggling outfit, scoring 3 goals in the process.

The player is set to join fellow French 2nd division outfit Paris FC, according to Le Progrès, who are seeking to compensate for the departure of full-back Julian Le Cardinal to RC Lens, who has been brought into RCL owing to a major injury to summer recruit Jimmy Cabot.

ASSE will have the majority, if not all, of the player’s wages off of their plate for the rest of the season – Maçon has one of the biggest salaries in the dressing room.

Maçon joined St Étienne from National 1 side Dunkerque in January 2020 and has received caps for the France U21s.

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L’Équipe first broke the news of Lens’ interest in Le Cardinal, revealing that the player had already agreed terms with the Ligue 1 club. Foot Mercato now reports that he is set to sign a three-year deal, after undergoing his medical, which is scheduled for this afternoon. 

The fee is thought to be €3m + bonuses. L’Équipe previously revealed the fee to be in the region of €3m. Le Cardinal is being brought in to replace summer signing Jimmy Cabot, who after featuring 11 times for Lens, suffered an ACL injury that looks set to rule him out for several months. Le Cardinal himself only joined Paris FC this summer from SC Bastia and has only made 12 appearances for his new club. 

GFFN | Luke Entwistle

Earlier this week,  L’Équipe reported that Angers and Paris FC reached an agreement over the transfer of  the 19-year-old – who was under contract at Stade Charléty until 2023. Angers are set to complete the move for the young Frenchman within the next few days. 

The Parisian side said the following on the move: “Paris FC warmly thanks Ousmane for his dedication, his professionalism and his performances for Paris FC. The club of the capital wishes him a successful career.”

A current international and captain with the France U19 side that reached the semi-finals of the Euros this summer, Camara was brought through the academy at PFC, and has made a total of 38 appearances for the second tier Parisian side.

The youngster was subject of a charm offensive from Greek 1st division outfit AEK Athens – and was not certain to remain with the Parisian Ligue 2 title contenders before the end of the summer transfer window.  AEK Athens have already had an opening bid for the player knocked back, but the club remains confident that they can get a deal done.

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