Arpitan Corinthians FC
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Managed by Megnat73 | |
Club information | |
Full name | Arpitan Corinthians Football Club |
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Short name | Corinthians |
Location | Savoie, ![]() |
League | V.167 |
Arena | Stado du Prât |
Coach | ![]() |
Fan Club | Los Arpencs |
Founded | 10 april 2020 |
Team Kits | |
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Arpitan Corinthians FC is an Arpitan professional football club based in Savoy, France. The club, known as Corinthians, was founded in april 2020 and currently plays in V.167. They are registered to the HFA with matricule number 592130. They wear white shirts with black shorts and socks and play their home games at the Stado du Prât. The club is mostly known for it’s use of the Arpitan language, which made Corinthians the face of the cultural region Arpitania.
Club history
Founded in april 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic under the countrywide lockdown, Corinthians was named after the London-based club Corinthian Football Club, famed for its ethos of "sportsmanship, fair play, [and] playing for the love of the game". The crest on the club emblem is a rosace, the symbol of the Arpitan minority. The newly created club were given the matricule number of 592130 by the Hattrick Football Association (HFA) and were placed in the sixth division of the French football league system, but due to the location of the club in the Mont Blanc area, the Corinthians' prefered to take membership of the Swiss Hattrick Federation (SHTF).
Corinthians’ official policy is communicating in Arpitan language; part of the regional identity. Arpitan language courses are offered by the club to new foreign players who have the duty to use and promote the language in communication channels and media. This made Corinthians in Hattrick the face of the cultural region Arpitania, which includes parts of Switzerland, France and Italy.
For the first season, Corinthians entered the football league of VI.740 in the 9th round. To begin, the club signed midfielder Salvador Ahuir as a clown to keep the positif team spirit among the team. Striker Jérémy Druart made 11 goals in 6 played matches, including 2 hat-tricks.
To reinforce the team for the second season, the Arpitan Corinthians Football Club broke their club transfer record in May 2020 by paying € 333 thousand to sign the Swiss midfielder Sebastien Mourey, who also became the new captain of the team. On May 25th, 2020 the Corinthians participate in the Cup of the Alps for the first time in their history, entering the 11th season of this prestigious friendly tournament. On 3 June, the Arpitans made their debut in the Coupe de France with a 4–0 win against Les Emballeurs. Nevertheless, the 1–2 lost in the second round against the richer and higher placed club Wenger Spirit, resulted in qualification to the Trophée Rubis knockout stages. In the first round of the Trophée Rubis, Corinthians beat New Portugal Cidade 11–0 in a home game on 17 June 2020, a historical win. During the competition, the Corinthians had a run of 4 undefeated matches. Despite that the team had more ball possession in the most of its matches, it became obvious during the season that the offensive line is in need of replacement. Corinthians finished fifth in the League and Romuald Duarte was the club's top goalscorer of the season with 5 goals. With these disappointing results, Gilles Royet was sacked on 10 September 2020. Later in the same month, Ralph Mertheim was signed as the new coach.
In the following season 76, Corinthians sold two of the biggest talents: Yannic Früchtenicht for €3,86 million to Dinamo Candarli and Dawid Kurpios for €3,57 million to Royal Dieumerci CF. In the summer transfer window, Mertheim decided to bolster his team, signing Zeno Tschann, Yoann Picot, defender Alexandre Letort and midfielder Pascal Bechard. The club also completed the selection by signing the talented 17 years old goalkeeper Ettore Falbo. In the French Cup, after beating Garden Party FC 5–0, the second round against Giggs Nantes was lost 1–2. The 26-year-old Zeno Tschann was the star of the show in Corinthians' convincing Ruby Challenger Cup win Nike Academy, netting a hat-trick for Ralph Mertheim's side. In the second round of this Cup, Arpitans were beaten 4–1 by SCBA. In the League, Corinthians reached the second place for several weeks and had nice results like the 6–0 won against fallen top club Double Bus FC, who played 3 seasons before in the French Championnat. In the 11th league match, midfielder Pascal Bechard had to be stretchered off in the 81th minute of the game against AS Geldar due to a injury wich will keep him out of action for 10 weeks. The 36-year-old Bechard had, prior to that match, scored 9 goals last 11 league matches, helping them being the club goal-scorer of that season, before announcing his forced retirement as a player.
In season 82, the Arpitans became champions of their division. Noteworthy were goalkeepers Jean-Philippe George and Ettore Falbo who alternated and hit a very high level at every match and kept their goal sealed, but the attacking line was also very effective. Super striker Zeno Tschann shot the ball into the goal from all angles that season, scoring 18 goals in 13 games. He became the league's top scorer and was awarded the golden boot. At the end of the season, the club played for a promotion-degradation game, which gave a chance of promotion to the 5th division. Although success had been achieved, the manager wanted to add fresh new players to the squad to start a new training cycle. The club MonsPSG, the opponent who was normally stronger, sabotaged the match by fielding its worst possible team, resulting in the Corinthians winning the match 1–2 against their will and therefore promoting to the 5th division.
After two playing days in season 84, following a mutual agreement, Ralph Mertheim was sacked as coach and replaced for popular former captain Sebastien Mourey.
Management
In 2020 a local businessman, Megnat, helped Arpitan Corinthians FC to build up the football club to join the Hattrick Football Association in 10 april 2020 and to enter the ongoing global season 74. From then, he became Corinthians’ manager and chairman. The name Megnât means « Kid » or « Child » translated in English.
Club culture
Support
The nickname Los Arpencs to design the Corinthians supporters can be translated into « The Alpine people » in English.
Rivalry
The club’s primary rivals are the clubs based in Paris. Most of the Corinthians fans are from small villages from the entire province and are very proud of their Arpitan identity. Since the Corinthians joined Hattrick, the club have been expressing this Arpitan pride to the rest of the France. The Arpitan flag, language and all Arpitan symbols were linked to the club, which made Arpitan Corinthians FC the face of the cultural region Arpitania.
Paris is widely seen as the embodiment of the oppressive centralism in France. Corinthians' fans are mockingly calling the Parisians by the Arpitan word « Monchus » (English: pretentious men). Despite these differences in ideology between Paris and the Arpitans, the organized matches are always keeping a sportive character. In snowy conditions, it happens that the Arpitans even helps the Parisians by fitting the snow chains on their vehicles.
Friends from abroad
Thanks to the similarities of languages and lifestyle, the Arpitan Corinthians FC considers clubs inside the linguistic domain Arpitania as major friends, including the local Savoy derbies. Friendly games have been played against teams from Savoie, Valais (Argessa FC), Vaud (FC Suchet) and Valle d'Aosta (Aosta FC).
Part of the family of Romance-languages, the Arpitans are closely related with the Occitans and Catalans. The first duel in the history of the club was played the 11 April 2020 in Barcelona against AC Catalunya. Corinthians went back to Catalunya in september 2020 to play a friendly match against CF Vilaboi. Another friendly was the game (658251315) in May 2020 against Occitania FC, an Occitan club in Canada.
* Special flags collected in international friendly matches:
- Arpitania:
Bresse (668864929)
Savoie (664041776)
Valais (668693676)
Valle d'Aosta (668458413)
Vaud (658140334)
- Worlwide:
Catalunya (664132309)
Corsica (669017054)
Occitània (658251315)
Records and statistics
Honours
Championship | Winner | Runner up | |||
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Number | Seasons | Number | Seasons | ||
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1× | S82 | 4× | S79, S84, S85, S86 |
Statistics
Season | League | Position | Points | GF | GA | Top scorer | French Cup round | GF | GA | Top scorer |
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74 | VI.740 | 4 | 19 | 41 | 46 | ![]() |
Did not participate | — | — | Did not participate |
75 | VI.740 | 5 | 17 | 25 | 30 | ![]() |
2nd | 5 | 2 | ![]() |
76 | VI.740 | 3 | 28 | 43 | 12 | ![]() |
2nd | — | — | ![]() |
77 | VI.740 | 3 | 26 | 44 | 11 | ![]() |
2nd | — | — | ![]() |
78 | VI.740 | 6 | 17 | 31 | 28 | ![]() |
2nd | — | — | ![]() |
79 | VI.740 | 2 | 32 | 44 | 9 | ![]() |
2nd | 3 | 1 | ![]() |
80 | VI.740 | 3 | 33 | 60 | 10 | ![]() |
2nd | 14 | 6 | ![]() |
81 | VI.740 | 3 | 29 | 43 | 16 | ![]() |
2nd | 10 | 4 | ![]() |
82 | VI.740 | 1 | 36 | 47 | 8 | ![]() |
2nd | 10 | 2 | ![]() |
83 | V.167 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 27 | ![]() |
2nd | 10 | 4 | ![]() |
84 | VI.884 | 2 | 33 | 28 | 5 | ![]() |
2nd | 8 | 3 | ![]() |
Highest Transfer Fees Paid
Name | From | Transfer Fee | Date | |
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1 | ![]() |
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€ 1.250.000 | 15 September 2020, Season 75 week 16 |
2 | ![]() |
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€ 772.000 | 18 September 2020, Season 75 week 16 |
3 | ![]() |
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€ 601.000 | 18 December 2022, Season 83 week 5 |
4 | ![]() |
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€ 405.000 | 18 September 2020, Season 75 week 16 |
5 | ![]() |
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€ 370.000 | 10 September 2020, Season 75 week 15 |
Highest Transfer Fees Received
Name | To | Transfer Fee | Date | |
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1 | ![]() |
Template:Country data LIT Miško Žmonės | € 9.180.000 | 2 October 2023, Season 86 week 1 |
2 | ![]() |
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€ 3.866.000 | 14 September 2020, Season 75 week 16 |
3 | ![]() |
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€ 3.570.000 | 14 September 2020, Season 75 week 16 |
Best youth players
Name | Best rating | Date of promotion | |
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1 | ![]() |
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30 August 2020, Season 75, week 14 |
2 | ![]() |
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21 November 2020, Season 76, week 7 |
3 | ![]() |
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21 January 2024, Season 86, week 14 |
Club records
- First competitive match: Ici c'est Paris 78 - Arpitan Corinthians, 5–3, League, 11 April 2020
- First win: Arpitan Corinthians - Festifoot, 7–0, League, 25 April 2020
- First goal: Romuald Duarte, League, 11 April 2020
- First hat-trick: Jérémy Druart
, League, 25 April 2020
List of rankings
Ranking | 1st Season | 5th Season | 10th Season |
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177 542 | 111 363 | 104 824 |
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7 355 | 6 579 | 4 490 |
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769 | 695 | 470 |
Overview lists
List of top goalscorers by season
The following is the list of Corinthians top scorers by global season (League + Coupe de France):
- Season 74:
Jérémy Druart (11)
- Season 75:
Romuald Duarte (5)
- Season 76:
Zeno Tschann (11)
- Season 77:
Pascal Bechard (5)
- Season 78:
Zeno Tschann (7)
- Season 79:
Zeno Tschann (8)
- Season 80:
Heribert Marner (15)
- Season 81:
Zeno Tschann (16)
- Season 82:
Zeno Tschann (19)
- Season 83:
Zeno Tschann (5)
- Season 84:
Massimo Restaino (6)
List of head coaches
This is a list of head coaches that have guided the Arpitan Corinthians from april 2020 to the present.
Notable former players
The following is a list of notable footballers who have played for Arpitan Corinthians FC.