Welcome to the Greek fan club of Valenciennes FC !
It was 2007 when we first heard the name Valenciennes. How did that happen? Through a very famous video game, called.. Pro Evolution Soccer! Then we learned the names of the players. Later we heard that Abdeslab Ouaddou was tranferred there from Olympiakos Pireaus. This fact made us search a bit more about the team via internet. We then discovered more than just interesting things.
1) Steve Savidan
The charismatic forward we knew by playing Pro was indeed charismatic! And even more! Scoring 61 times in 145 games from 2004 until 2008 he contributed importantly to make the team climb from Ligue National up to Ligue 1! Despite his transfer to Caen and the fans' disappointment, he always owns a special place to every Valenciennois heart.
Enjoy his skills at a 2006-2007 match against Nantes FC when he scored 4 times.
2) "Athens of the North"
Finding more information on the internet about Valenciennes, we stumbled upon a surprise we didn't expect. The city was nicknamed as "Athenes du Nord". We just couldn't believe what we have read. "Athens of the North" ! And hence the nickname of the team was "Les Atheniens" (Athenians). This nickname is due to the architecture of the city before WWII, which reminds something of Hellas. What else should someone ask for, being a resident of the city of Athens, from a team he accidentally found?
3) The supporters
Valenciennes is a town of 40.000 inhabitants. Its stadium (Stade Nungesser) can host 15.000 people approximately. The fact that every week the fans are filling it up creating a hot atmosphere, cannot be passed unnoticed. The atmosphere reminds us something of the greek football stadiums (except for the bad incidents) as some of the chants are taken off of them.
We understood that this team has had a lot to tell us.
GO Valenciennes! GO!
On May 2008 we decided with pleasure to found our own fan club, no matter how big it was. Today we count 11 members, number that is not sufficient enough to call it as official fan club. According to the greek law,we need 21 members to claim it. Our effort though still goes on..
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Our first move was to make a tribute video to the team and its passionate fans.
- Then, we made t-shirts of our fan club,
- We spread the word about the fan club to many football forums, not only greek ones. We were texting to the national sports radio (ERA Sport) informing the audience of our moves. The creation of our logo came up with enthusiasm.
- Our great success came at the end of summer of 2008. We were approached by a journalist of "L' equipe". He wanted to learn more about our club and give us some space on his article about the fan clubs (founded by non-French fans) of French football teams outside France. The article was published at L' equipe's magasine of the Ligue 1 (season 2008-2009); an annual version presenting all the teams of the upcoming french football championship.
And, behold! The 2-page article as shown on worlds biggest sports magazine.
Our logo at the center of the page:
and the space reffering to us:
Note: The reference to Olympiacos FC is clearly personal and has nothing to do with our fan club, whose members support other Greek teams as well.
- After this publication we thought it was time we made our existance familiar to the teams supporters in France. The reactions on our first comment at the official forum of the team's fans, were many and various. There were some who welcomed us with pleasure and enthusiasm. But the majority of them had been sceptical considering it a bad joke. Therefore, we thought ways of changing their mind. We photographed ourselves with scarfs and flags of the team. Where else? In Acropolis and at the streets of ancient Athens.
- Over the time, our presence to forums, social networks and video promotion pages has been strengthened.
- What else was there left to do? A trip to France, of course, in order to be present at a match of our favourite team.
And not just any match. We chose the one against Caen, on 10th January 2009, the team that Steve Savidan has been transfered to. Arriving at Valenciennes we were informed that the match was cancelled due to frost. Obviously, we were disappointed. But we didn´t loose our smile. On Friday evening we attended team´s training. We made our presence clear, took photos with the players and afterwards we were interviewed by a journalist of the region newspaper "La Voix du Nord". (http://www.lavoixdunord.fr/Recherche/?q=fan-club+grec+vafc&site=global-vdn-vds-ve&btnG=Recherche+Google).
Our journey became a nightmare due to a traffic accident we had. Ilias, a member of our club, was hospitalised in Intensive Care for days. Fortunately, everything went fine thanks to the help we got by our French friends, and not only them. The supporters held a donation, Julien hosted us to his appartment, Alex and his family supported us in any possible way, and so they did Carlo and Hélène. The Greek community of Lille along with Stathis Tavlaridis contributed financially and we thank them for their aid.
Our journey became a nightmare due to a traffic accident we had. Ilias, a member of our club, was hospitalised in Intensive Care for days. Fortunately, everything went fine thanks to the help we got by our French friends, and not only them. The supporters held a donation, Julien hosted us to his appartment, Alex and his family supported us in any possible way, and so they did Carlo and Hélène. The Greek community of Lille along with Stathis Tavlaridis contributed financially and we thank them for their aid.
(on the left: Alex - on the right: Tavlaridis)Through such difficult moments, the people of this small town proved how Valenciennes and the people behind it, constitute a family, something that has made us obtain brother relations with them!
- Nine months later, we visited again the beautiful town of Valenciennes. This time the match took place and it was successful. Our banner next to our Greek flag showed to everyone in the stadium that "The Athenians" were there.
A clear 2-0 score against Grenoble, the unique atmosphere created on the stands, the acceptance and our recognition by everyone pleased us significantly. The announcement of our presence in the stadium caused a big applause. We were again on the newspapers!
- On November the 6th, 2009 we were hosted on ERA Sport's radio emission, called "Trito Mati", where we discussed about the history of our fan club and the team.
- To date, our relations are maintained close and the contact with our French friends is constant.
