Football Season Guide

Back to professional football in 2024/2025, Red Star had to fight for survival and were lucky to avoid an immediate return to the Championnat National. Last season, though, they made it immediately clear that things would have been different as they installed themselves in the top 5 in week 5 and did not leave it until the end. Even though they did not excel offensively, they held the 8th-best attack only, and they sported the 5th-best defence, with 37 goals scored, Red Star really made a sensation, especially thanks to their away performances, they won 8 times on the road, giving a hard time to all the top sides. Unfortunately for them, though, after finishing the campaign on the 4th rung of the ladder, they failed to achieve an unthinkable-of promotion to the Ligue 1 due to a home defeat to Rodez in the playoffs. Coach Grégory Poirier, the architect of their recent successes, considered his experience at the club over and decided to quit. Red Star thus opted to hand the reins of the team to 43-year-old Damien Perrinelle, at his first experience going solo as head coach after leading AS Monaco together with Adi Hutter. In terms of arrivals and departures, Red Star did not have a very busy summer. In goal, back-up Beunardeu was let go to Cannes, while in came Benchaouch, coming, not too surprisingly, from Monaco youth system. Moreover, centre-back Doucouré was released after spending 2 seasons injured, while 20-year-old Zidane was signed from Betis second team. Starting right-back Sylla returned to his parent club but this should only represent a problem for the bench since Magnin grew a lot in the course of the past campaign and is likely to get a place in the XI. Last but not least, they saw also starting midfielder Haag returning to his parent club but he had lost form towards the end of the season. No midfielder was signed yet with only Renel returning from a stint in the lower category.