In the very tight battle for fourth place in the French league, the final Champions League qualification spot, there are four clubs still in contention heading into the final day.
The usual suspects Nice, Lille and Lyon are there, but a newcomer has joined the leading pack: Strasbourg. Ranked 13th last season and 15th the season before that, they are enjoying a historic season, even if defeat to 13th-placed Angers on the penultimate matchday has left Liam Rosenior's men a little behind.
The 2024-25 season is the second since the arrival of BlueCo, the consortium led by Todd Boehly which already owns Chelsea. A change of shareholder was deemed necessary to "turn a corner" according to chairman Marc Keller.
Since then, Strasbourg have spent lavishly to secure the services of promising young players across Europe, with a sporting policy worthy of that of its big brother Chelsea, who are buying at every turn to avoid missing out on the future Messi.
A completely overhauled squad
The four biggest transfers in the club's history have taken place since the arrival of BlueCo (Abakar Sylla, Emanuel Emegha, Sekou Mara and Sebastian Nanasi), while 13 of the club's 15 most expensive arrivals have been in the last two seasons.
Gone are the days of a traditional Ligue 1 team with experienced leaders and a handful of promising youngsters from the academy. Today, Strasbourg has a squad with an average age of 22.1 - the youngest in Europe's top five leagues - and a totally cosmopolitan makeup: 15 different nationalities are represented in the dressing room.
It's a clever mix orchestrated by Chelsea, who have loaned their goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic and midfielder Andrey Santos to the club on loan, as the latter was short of game time in the British capital. Diego Moreira, who trained with the Blues, also arrived in Alsace this summer in a permanent move.
An exciting young coach
After the failure of Patrick Vieira last season, Chelsea went a step further in the anglicisation of the Strasbourg dressing room this summer by appointing Liam Rosenior, 40 and fresh from his Championship move from Hull City.
He has quickly imposed an attacking style of play and brought together an armada of talented young players who have raised their ambitions under him.
"I remember when I arrived in France, people laughed. They said they didn't know who I was. It motivates you to do well. The work isn't finished. There are still great things ahead of us," said the coach at the time of his extension until 2028.
At the start of the season, his young class fumbled their way through before understanding his philosophy of play, which favours powerful pressing and a desire to draw opponents in by playing a very slow passing game.
"When I arrived, the intensity really changed in training, and that helps everyone now to be fit enough to cover the distance at high intensity," Rosenior told AFP in an interview.
It's an intensity that sometimes cost Strasbourg dearly at the start of the season when they had a few lapses before they learned to manage the matches better. Since 9 February, Strasbourg have lost just one game, to Angers last weekend, and have claimed the scalps of Lyon (4-2) and Paris Saint-Germain (2-1) while holding off Nice (2-2) and Monaco (0-0).
Joie de vivre
After each victory, the same ritual: a circle dance in the middle of the dressing room, the steps of which were often repeated during the week between training sessions. This very young group has begun to make a name for itself for its infectious joie de vivre, demonstrating that football is not only a profession but also a passion that can be shared.
As Liam Rosenior often assures us though, while his players are always ready to go all out and have some fun, they also know when it's time to concentrate and work.
This youth is a strength," Felix Lemarechal told AFP. "We run more, we communicate without embarrassment. With the players who are all the same age, we can say things directly. We all have the same way of talking.
His coach agrees, and even believes that there is a "natural connection" between his young players, which helps to create a cohesive unit from striker Emegha to goalkeeper Petrovic: "The players like to play with each other and everyone is committed to stopping a shot with the desire to always move forward."
The star players
It's not for nothing that RCSA are the Ligue 1 team to have covered the most kilometres in a sprint, but in the midst of this highly athletic collective, several individuals have also caught the eye.
Emanuel Emegha, a Dutch striker who arrived in 2023 and is enjoying a real breakthrough season (14 goals scored, the fifth-most in the league), is one, and Chelsea loanee Andrey Santos, is another, boasting nine goals and three assists in addition to countless tackles and recoveries.
"I love him. He's my Rodri(...) His technical ability to break down lines and make the right decisions with the ball is worthy of an older player. He's way ahead of his time," says Rosenior.
Dilane Bakwa, recruited from Bordeaux for €10 million in 2023, has stepped up in Emegha's absence, and Nanasi is an astonishing Swedish midfielder with five goals and four assists to his name.
But all of these stars, who Chelsea are keeping an eye on, are unlikely to stay at Strasbourg next season unless some of them want to play in the Champions League with the Alsatian club if they qualify.
Unhappy fans
The changes in ownership are not going down well with the local fans. They feel that their club has become Chelsea's B team, a far cry from the RCSA's strong identity in the past.
As a sign of protest against this model imposed by BlueCo, the supporter group Ultra Boys 90 go on strike for the first 15 minutes of each of the club's matches, despite the good results. They fear that Strasbourg will once again disappear from professional football as they did during the IMG-McCormack years (1997-2003) and the Jafar Hilali period (2009-2011), under two investors who ended up selling the club for a symbolic one euro.
At the end of January, captain Habib Diarra called for the team to be cheered "from start to finish" at every match after a victory over Lille. It was a statement that divided the stands at the Meinau, with a certain fringe of Alsatian supporters believing that the Ultra Boys 90 were too harsh in maintaining given the results and the financial security provided by BlueCo.
It is in front of this divided fanbase that Strasbourg hope to qualify for the Champions League, in a home match against Le Havre. Would qualification for the Champions League be enough to unite everyone?