Racing Club de Lens
Also written as Lens.
The club
Racing Club de Lens were founded in 1906 as Racing Club Lensois in the mining town of Lens in the Pas-de-Calais, taking their current name in 1969. The club originally played in green and black, the colours of the pitch known locally as "la Verte" and of the coal that dominated the town, before switching to the red and gold that gave the club its nickname, Sang et Or (Blood and Gold), in 1924. By the early 1930s the club was backed by the local mining company, the Compagnie des mines de Lens, and turned professional in 1934. When the Lens mines closed in 1962 the club's future became precarious, since most of the players still worked as miners alongside football, and professional football at the club lapsed in 1969 before being revived in the 1970s.
The home ground is the Stade Bollaert-Delelis, opened in 1932 as the Stade Félix Bollaert and renovated for UEFA Euro 2016, during which Lens played their 2014/15 home matches elsewhere. Capacity is 38,223. The ground has a strong reputation as one of the most atmospheric in France, built on the fervour of the Sang et Or support in a proud, communal, industrial city, with visiting supporters and journalists regularly describing the noise and the singing from the first whistle to the last as among the best matchday experiences in French football.
The head coach is the German Dino Toppmöller, who signed on 16 June 2026, succeeding Pierre Sage, who left to become manager of Crystal Palace. Toppmöller previously managed Eintracht Frankfurt from 1 July 2023 to 18 January 2026, taking charge of 122 matches (52 wins, 35 draws, 35 losses) and leading the club to third place in the 2024/25 Bundesliga and Champions League qualification. He has described Lens as "a little like Eintracht Frankfurt, only with fewer resources because the television-rights crisis has affected all Ligue 1 clubs," and said the appointment came because "they saw the sales of [Willian] Pacho, [Hugo] Ekitiké and [Omar] Marmoush" under him at Frankfurt. His first match in charge was the 2026 Trophée des Champions, which Lens won.
Recent seasons
Lens finished seventh in 2020/21 and seventh again in 2021/22 with 62 points. In 2022/23 they had their best campaign in decades, finishing second with 84 points from 25 wins, 9 draws and 4 losses, 68 goals scored and 29 conceded, one point behind champions Paris Saint-Germain. That earned a Champions League campaign in 2023/24, in which Lens finished third in a group with Arsenal, PSV Eindhoven and Sevilla, beating Arsenal 2-1 at home but losing 6-0 away to them on the final matchday. In 2025/26 Lens finished second again, on 70 points from 22 wins, 4 draws and 8 losses in 34 matches, behind Paris Saint-Germain, and also won the Coupe de France for the first time in the club's history.
Honours and landmarks
Lens are Ligue 1 champions once, in 1997/98, and have finished runners-up six times: 1955/56, 1956/57, 1976/77, 2001/02, 2022/23 and 2025/26. They have won Ligue 2 four times (1936/37, 1948/49, 1972/73, 2008/09) and finished runners-up twice (2013/14, 2019/20). The Coupe de France was won for the first time in 2025/26, beating Nice 3-1 in the final, after three runners-up finishes, in 1947/48, 1974/75 and 1997/98 (the last of those a 2-1 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain). Lens have won the Coupe de la Ligue twice, in 1993/94 and 1998/99, and were runners-up in 2007/08. They won the Trophée des Champions for the first time in 2026, beating Paris Saint-Germain 1-0, having previously been runners-up in 1998. In Europe, their best run remains a UEFA Cup semi-final in 1999/2000, and they won the UEFA Intertoto Cup in 2005.
Notable scorelines
Lens beat Lazio 6-0 at the Stade Bollaert in the second leg of a UEFA Cup round of 32 tie on 2 November 1977, a result still celebrated by supporters decades later. In the 1998/99 Champions League group stage they beat Arsenal 1-0 at Wembley, and the following season reached the UEFA Cup semi-final, where Arsenal beat them 3-1 on aggregate, Thierry Henry and Kanu scoring in a 2-1 second-leg win in London after Pascal Nouma had scored for Lens. In the 2023/24 Champions League group stage Lens beat Arsenal 2-1 at Bollaert-Delelis but were beaten 6-0 by the same opponents away on the final matchday, Arsenal fielding six different goalscorers. Domestically, Lens lost the 1975 Coupe de France final 2-0 to Saint-Étienne and the 1998 final 2-1 to Paris Saint-Germain, before finally winning the trophy in 2026, beating Nice 3-1, and then beat Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 in the Trophée des Champions that August.
European record
Lens's most sustained European run came in 1999/2000, when they reached the UEFA Cup semi-final before losing to Arsenal, having already beaten the same club 1-0 at Wembley in the Champions League group stage the previous season. They won the UEFA Intertoto Cup in 2005. Their most recent sustained continental campaign before the current one was the 2023/24 Champions League group stage, earned by finishing second in Ligue 1 in 2022/23, where they finished third in a group with Arsenal, PSV Eindhoven and Sevilla. Beyond these campaigns, the fuller detail of Lens's European history, including all qualifying-round and group-stage results across the decades, was not established from the sources read here.
Quotes
Dino Toppmöller, on taking the Lens job: "Lens is a little like Eintracht Frankfurt, only with fewer resources because the television-rights crisis has affected all Ligue 1 clubs. It is a great club, but it doesn't have the resources it deserves. That forces us to be quicker in scouting because we cannot convince players with money." On his coaching approach: "I want to win, but the most important thing is the development of the player. If he improves, the team improves as well. If the coach has the courage to give young players playing time, they develop and we can sell them later." On why Lens turned to him: "This was also my project in Frankfurt, and it is the same in Lens. Perhaps that is why they said, 'We want coach Dino.' They saw the sales of Pacho, Ekitiké and Marmoush, and that [Nathaniel] Brown became a senior international under me, followed by Nnamdi Collins."
Right now (2026/27)
Dino Toppmöller is the head coach, having won the Trophée des Champions 1-0 over Paris Saint-Germain in his first match in charge on 16 August 2026. In Ligue 1, Lens began with a 5-2 win over Auxerre, then lost 2-1 away to Strasbourg and 0-1 at home to Lorient, leaving them 11th after three matches with 3 points from one win and two defeats, 6 goals for and 5 against.
Lens qualified for the Champions League by finishing second in Ligue 1 in 2025/26, entering the league phase directly for their fourth appearance in the competition and their second in four seasons. They open their campaign away to Slavia Prague at what UEFA lists as the Eden Arena in Prague, in a Matchday 1 fixture reported variously as 4, 9 and 10 September 2026 across different previews; the exact kick-off date was not established with certainty from the sources read here. The two clubs have met only once before in Europe, a 1995/96 UEFA Cup tie which Slavia won on away goals after a scoreless first leg in Prague and a 1-0 win in Lens. UEFA's own preview notes that Slavia have not won any of their last 19 Champions League matches proper (7 draws, 12 losses) but have won four of their last six matches against French opposition, while Lens have lost only two of their last nine Champions League group-stage games yet are winless in their last 16 away European fixtures. Team news and a starting line-up for the Slavia Prague match were not established from the sources read here.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RC_Lens https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dino_Toppm%C3%B6ller https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_RC_Lens_season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022%E2%80%9323_RC_Lens_season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Ligue_1 https://www.getfootballnewsgermany.com/2026/toppmoller-lens-interview-2/ https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/official-former-eintracht-frankfurt-boss-080500336.html https://www.rclens.fr/fr/modalites-deplacement-slavia-prague-ligue-des-champions-20260904 https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/02a9-218375432a2e-1b4d397e430b-1000--champions-league-matchday-1-slavia-praha-vs-lens-facts/ https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/match/2049569--slavia-praha-vs-lens/ https://www.mightytips.com/football-predictions/slavia-prague-vs-lens-prediction-10-09-2026/ https://tips.gg/article/slavia-prague-vs-lens-where-to-watch/ https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/match/65042--lens-vs-lazio/ https://www.rclens.fr/fr/news/match-de-legende-sang-et-original-rclens-lazio-20211102 https://stadiumdb.com/stadiums/fra/stade_felix_bollaert https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g661384-d10911020-r454316384-Stade_Bollaert_Delelis-Lens_Pas_de_Calais_Hauts_de_France.html https://onefootball.com/en/news/ligue-1-2026-2027-lens-aim-to-back-up-last-season-under-dino-toppmoeller-43299450
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.