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The club is one of the six to win all three major French trophies: the Championship in 1979, the Coupe de France in 1951, 1966, 2001 and the Coupe de la Ligue in 1997 and 2005. Strasbourg is among the six teams that have played more than 2000 games in France's top flight (56 seasons) and has taken part in 52 European games since 1961. Despite these accomplishments, the RCS has never really managed to lastingly establish itself as one of France's leading clubs, facing relegation at least once in every decade since the early 1950s. This recurring gap between high expectations and disappointing results has more than once led to instability and crises: Racing has changed its manager 52 times in 75 years of professional play, often under popular pressure. The destiny of the RCS has always closely espoused the history of Alsace. Like the region of which it emanates, Racing has changed three times of nationality in less than thirty years and has a troubled, passionate history. Founded in what was then a part of the German Empire, the club has from the beginning insisted on its Alsatian and popular roots, in opposition to the first Strasbourg-based clubs which were emanations of the German-born bourgeoisie. When Alsace went back to France in 1919, the club changed its appellation from "1. FC Neudorf" to the current "Racing club de Strasbourg" to imitate Pierre de Coubertin's Racing Club de France as a clear gesture of francophilia. Racing players went through World War II as most Alsatians did: evacuated in 1939, annexed in 1940 and striving to avoid nazification and incorporation in the Wehrmacht between 1942 and 1944. As Alsace was definitively returned to France, Racing's oppositional identity switched more towards Jacobinism, with for example emotional wins in the cup in 1951 and 1966 amidst Franco-Alsatian controversies. More recently, the club has been eager to promote its European vocation along with its strong local ties. |
