There are eternal clubs, which never die, where passion and authenticity remain intact over the years, despite being bought by a foreign investment fund. This is the case with Red Star. Currently at the top of the National championship, the Saint-Ouen club continues to become more professional and seems very well on its way to returning to Ligue 2 next season, which it left at the end of the 2018-2019 season. And this is not surprising. Since 2008, when the club was taken over by the current 66-year-old president, Patrice Haddad, Red Star has grown again and again.
After having made the “elevator” between the National and Ligue 2 several times over the last decade, Etoile Rouge, the second oldest club in the country, a true flagship team of Parisian and French football in the 1920s until in the 1940s, winner of five Coupe de France during this period and already double National champion in 2015 and 2018, has never seemed as stable as ever on a sporting and administrative level.
The club’s recent development was accelerated in 2022 during the takeover by the American private investment company 777 Partners, created in 2015, and which owns many other clubs in Europe and around the world such as Genoa FC in Italy, Standard de Liège in Belgium or Vasco da Gama in Brazil. “With the arrival of 777 Partners, we are building the future of the club. This is a new starting point, explains President Patrice Haddad. We have great satisfaction. That of having succeeded in resolving what constituted the greatest obstacle to the evolution of Red Star for decades: the problem of infrastructure.
Indeed, the emblematic Red Star enclosure, the Bauer stadium, is under renovation. A high-level training center is also being created in Marville, as well as a training center. Just that. “Red Star now has its house, its houses, without which we could not grow,” says the president of the Audon club. “It has been a long-term job, which was made possible by the investment of all the members of the club, but also thanks to the local authorities who joined forces to allow this to exist. Thanks to their support, we can finally aim for the highest level by playing at home. This acquisition is a success,” underlines Haddad. A successful bet which contrasts with the takeover of certain clubs, such as that of Olympique Lyonnais by the American John Textor in 2022, whose results and sporting project raise questions. Another example, the Girondins de Bordeaux, also passed under the American flag in 2018. The King Street consortium entangled the Bordeaux club in serious economic problems before leaving. So much so that the Girondins came close to going into receivership and administrative relegation to National 3. For the Red Star, the story is quite different.
The good structuring of the sports sector allowed Patrice Haddad to create the Red Star LAB in 2008. An association of 1,000 licensees, very well supervised, who display more than encouraging sporting results (U17 in National), all enhanced by a strong desire for training that goes beyond the field. “We set up free cultural and artistic workshops for our graduates during school holidays. These moments aim to connect, through the prism of football, licensees to art and culture. A project which echoes the famous phrase of the founder of Red Star, Jules Rimet, who said in 1897 that he wanted to “work the body and awaken the mind” with the Audon club.
This Friday, as part of the reception in Orléans for the 17th day of the National, the Bauer Stadium will discover its new stand, which will be ready to replace the historic West stand. This renovation will accommodate around 10,000 spectators in the Audonian enclosure. A necessarily special moment for all lovers of the club like Mickaël Tacalfred, 42 years old, trained at Red Star, also a former player for Stade de Reims in Ligue 1: “To think that it ended with the West, it feels a little pinching. at the heart, but at a given moment, you also have to know how to evolve and move on to something else. It’s a new beginning, a new momentum. All this is only beneficial for the club and the city.
Bauer Stadium and Red Star’s infrastructure continue to transform and evolve since the arrival of 777 Partners. At the same time, the club remains the same intrinsically. “You can sell a club, without selling your soul,” says Patrice Haddad. “The strength of the Red Star, what allowed it to exist – sometimes to survive – is its identity. That of a committed club, anchored in its territory, popular, and educational.” These unchanged values are those of Red Star. “It is this DNA that convinced 777 Partners to invest here. The Red Star is the club of an entire people, of a Seine-Saint-Denis that we are keen to make shine with local players. Our identity is our strength, and it is protected by the people who make up this club, some of whom have known it for more than fifteen years, others for less time.
Among those people who love Red Star and who are part of Red Star’s history in their own right, there is 43-year-old central defender Ibrahim Tounkara. “Ibou” has been at the club for more than twenty years. It’s his life. Tounkara started among the chicks with the Red Star until experiencing the best and worst moments of the Audonian eleven. For him, the “RS” is much more than just a football club: “The Red Star is a huge family. Even when we leave, we never really leave the club. We always come home. This club is special, you can’t forget it,” confides “Ibou”. “Red Star is the essence of football, popular football, the football of the atmosphere, the football that we love. The supporters come from all different backgrounds and that’s what’s beautiful. It is a sacred union that has lasted for 126 years.” The Red Star is a truly singular entity, which respects itself and which remains true to itself despite changes. So much so that the player sees no difference in the functioning of the club since its takeover. “I didn’t even notice 777 partners had arrived to be honest. Nothing has moved. Things stay intact because the people there are competent. They know where they have set foot and understand what it is like here. The club once again becomes an important place in Parisian football. People work with love, with passion. Everything is done with the heart. That’s the Red Star.”
The DNA and values of Red Star allowed the club not to be distorted after the takeover by the American investment company. These intimately protect the club, without going against the world of modern football business and without freezing it in the past. “Red Star is becoming a brand in the good sense of the term,” judges Steve Marlet, 50, a former professional player, trained at Red Star, and current manager of the club. “We already worked on the Red Star brand before the takeover. The club has become one for 6-8 years, during the first promotion to Ligue 2 in 2015. Indeed, the former Olympique de Marseille striker “sees a lot more people in the street with jerseys, signs of the Red Star. Red Star is becoming listed again and that’s nice. Young people today, when you talk to them about this club, they have stars in their eyes. There was a slogan in the 80s that said: “Red Star is a nice club.” I think that’s still the case.” As a supporter of the club for more than 30 years, Pascal notices that Red Star is gradually regaining its former popularity. “It’s been a few years since a certain enthusiasm has returned for the Red Star. We feel it. Tickets for the matches at Bauer sell out very quickly and the atmosphere is as beautiful as before. The club had somewhat fallen into oblivion in the past. A very good job is being done and it’s really pleasing.”
If the Red Star is making many football lovers dream and vibrate again, it is also (and above all) because the team of Habib Beye, who has done a remarkable job as a coach since his arrival at the head of the eleven audonian three years ago, shows himself to be efficient, attractive and offensive on the field. The Saint-Ouen team is the best home team in National and has the second most prolific attack in the championship. And it is not a hazard. After narrowly failing to advance to Ligue 2 last season, the Audon team seems determined not to let the opportunity pass this time. “The players and staff were able to meet the desired standards with high ambitions in mind. It’s a team that resembles its club, its territory, its supporters and its stadium…” notes Reda Hammache, 42, sports director of “RS”. “A dynamic, attractive and resilient team that plays with great commitment producing dominant football. Considering what Red Star is and what it is becoming, its place is no longer in National and we are doing our best to remedy this in the very short term. The ambition to move up to Ligue 2 this season has been infused in the blood.”
Beyond aiming to reach Ligue 2 at the end of this season, president Patrice Haddad admits that Red Star has other objectives such as “opening its training center and succeeding in stabilizing itself in the professional divisions.” This is well before thinking about Ligue 1, which will be a “medium-long term” objective for Red Star. What is certain is that Red Star finally has the means to match its ambitions and is determined to (re)become a stronghold of French football.
