While 2016 ended on a high for OGC Nice, it was also a year of deep suffering, both collective and individual.  A look back on an extraordinary 366-day period that left many heavy hearts in Nice.

The promenade attacked

The senior team is in pre-season in Divonne and it's a national holiday. The workload has intensified and the Aiglons are enjoying an evening relaxing with each other. It's 14 July. The news breaks and phones start ringing: the Promenade has been attacked. Eighty-six victims were crushed beneath a renegade truck and the city's main artery was gashed. Dumbstruck, like the rest of the Niçois, the Aiglons did their best to pay homage to the victims and their loved ones. An objective shared by the entire club and its partners.

On 14 August, Paul Baysse and his teammates began their league campaign with a special shirt, devoid of sponsors' logos and covered in the names of the victims. The curtain was raised on a new season, but in total silence. Nice's shirts, like those of Rennes, who showed their solidarity, would be auctioned off in October and amass €121,500 for the families of the victims.  

Others struggles

2016 also saw several of Le Gym's notable figures pass on. The immense Pancho Gonzalez, a shining captain, then coach and then club director, passed in the spring.

René Marsiglia, former player, youth team coach and then coach of the Aiglons, left us in the autumn.

José Boetto (former president of fans association) and lifelong Gym fan, was taken from us in February…

Three names taken from the multitude that passed away this year, who remain in Le Gym's heart during this festive period.

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