The 2025-26 season ended on a good night with top-flight survival assured with the play-off second leg win over Saint-Etienne (4-1). Here’s the top numbers from the campaign.

39  

39 players made first-team appearances under Franck Haise in the first part of the season and Claude Puel in the second.

The 39 players used

Goalkeepers: Diouf, Dupé

Defenders: Dante, Bah, Mendy, Clauss, Bard, Oppong, Koutoune, Abdi, Bombito, Mantsounga, Ndayishimiye, M. Youssouf, Ali.

Midfielders: Sanson, Boudaoui, Louchet, Coulibaly, Abdul Samed, Rosario, Vanhoutte, Ndombele, Everton, M. Brignone.

Forwards: Bouanani, Moffi, Jansson, Boga, Diop, Nguene, Bernardeau, Brahimi, Kevin Carlos, Gouveia, Cho, Diallo, Wahi, Boudache.

11 + 2

Of those 39, 11 came through the OGC Nice youth academy (Mendy, Louchet, Koutoune, Mantsounga, Youssouf, Ali, Louchet, Coulibaly, Everton, M. Brignone, Boudache) and two arrived at the end of their youth academy training, making their L1 debut in the red-and-black shirt (Nguene, Diallo).

All except Antoine Mendy, Tom Louchet and Bernard Nguene (who joined Standard Liège in January) made their first-team debuts this season.

3680

Melvin Bard is the most-used player this season with 3680 minutes across all competitions. With 44 appearances (2 goals, 1 assist), our left-back has now played 191 games for Le Gym (7 goals, 6 assists) following his 2021 arrival.

The most-used players this season

• 1st - Melvin Bard (3680 minutes)

• 2nd - Jonathan Clauss (3642 minutes)

• 3rd - Kojo Peprah Oppong (3465 minutes)

These three players are also the most-used in the league, but in a different order:

• 1st – Jonathan Clauss (2531 minutes in L1)

• 2nd – Kojo Peprah Oppong (2429 minutes in L1)

• 3rd – Melvin Bard (2396 minutes in L1)

13

Jonathan Clauss and Sofiane Diop each have 13 goal involvements in all competitions this season.

The former has a team-high 11 assists along with two goals, one coming in the play-off second leg.

The latter finished with a team-high 10 goals, including eight in L1.

62,8%

Among the players who played at least 500 minutes in L1, Kojo Oppong is the Aiglon with the highest percentage of duels won (62.8%), ahead of Antoine Mendy (59.6%) and Dante (57.7%).

67

Kojo’s energy is all the more impressive given he arrived on 25 July 2025 having already played 20 games since the turn of the year with Swedish side Norrkoping, including a Swedish Cup semi-final.

With 43 appearances for Nice, the Accra-born player also now has four caps for Ghana. He has now played 67 games since the start of 2025, and could still play more as he’s in the Black Stars’ World Cup squad.

25

The number of years separating the youngest and oldest members of the first-team squad.

Given his debut aged 16 years, 8 months and 24 days in the play-off second leg against Benfica, Djibril Coulibaly (born 18 November 2008) made seven first-team appearances. Aged 17 years and 185 days, he became the youngest player to feature in the Coupe de France final, even scoring to give our side hope.

Also in the starting line-up for the play-off second leg against Saint-Etienne, Coulibaly again showed just how far he has come this season. He also overcame injury and helped the club reach the quarter-finals of the Gambardella Cup where they lost out to eventual runners-up Montpellier.

The oldest in the squad is, of course, Dante, born 18 October 1983. The 42-year-old brought down the curtain on a decade at the club by preserving its top-flight status. Niggled by injury, the Capitao played 19 games, taking his total to 329 in the red-and-black shirt (8 goals), which puts him in the club’s all-time top 5 for appearances.

With his boots now hung up, Dante leaves to take over as coach of Bayern Munich’s U23 side.

52

The number of matches played this season in all competitions (34 in L1, 2 in the Champions League play-offs, 8 Europa League, 6 Coupe de France, 2 L1 play-off).

It’s the second-longest season since returning to the top flight behind 2017-18 when the Aiglons played 53 matchs (2 Champions League qualifying, 2 Champions League play-off, 38 L1, 8 Europa League, 1 Coupe de France, 2 Coupe de la Ligue). At the time, the league had 20 teams (18 since 2023-24) while the Coupe de la Ligue was scrapped in 2020.

In 2022-23, Le Gym played 51 matchs (38 L1, 2 Conference League qualifying, 10 Conference League, 1 Coupe de France).

1

Le Gym is the first top-flight team to win the promotion/relegation play-off since Nantes in 2020/21 (vs. Toulouse). L1 clubs had lost the previous three (St. Etienne in 2021/22, Metz in 2023/24, Reims in 2024/25).

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