Football Club Lorient (French pronunciation: [lɔʁjɑ̃ bʁətaɲ syd];), commonly referred to as FC Lorient (Breton: An Oriant), is a French professional association football club based in Lorient, Brittany. The club was founded in 1926 and currently competes in Ligue 1, having been promoted from Ligue 2 at the end of the 2024–25 season. Lorient plays its home matches at the Stade Yves Allainmat, named after the former mayor of Lorient. The stadium is surnamed Stade du Moustoir because of its location within the city. The team is managed by Olivier Pantaloni.
Lorient had a relatively bleak history nationally before 1998 when the club made its first appearance in Ligue 1 in the 1998–99 season. Before that, Lorient spent most of its life as an amateur club. Lorient's achieved its biggest honour in 2002 when the club won the Coupe de France defeating Bastia 1–0 in the final. Lorient has never won Ligue 1, but has won the Championnat National earning this honour in 1995. Regionally, the club has won five Brittany Division d'Honneur titles and six Coupe de Bretagne.
Lorient has most notably served as a springboard club for several international players in recent years, including Laurent Koscielny, André-Pierre Gignac, Michaël Ciani, Kevin Gameiro, Karim Ziani, Bakari Koné, Matteo Guendouzi, and Seydou Keita. French international Yoann Gourcuff, the son of Christian Gourcuff, began his career at the club before moving to Derby Breton rivals Rennes.
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History
Football Club Lorient was founded on 2 April 1926. Lorient was formed off of La Marée Sportive, a club founded a year earlier by Madame Cuissard, a store patron who originated from Saint-Étienne, and her son Joseph. In 1929, The club began play as an amateur club under the Czechoslovak manager Jozef Loquay and won the Champions de l'Ouest, which placed the club into the Division d'Honneur of the Brittany region. In 1932, Lorient won the league and, four years later, repeated this performance. The onset of World War II limited the club's meteoric rise in the region and the departure of several players who either joined the war effort or left to play abroad effectively disseminated the club.
Following the war, Antoine Cuissard, the grandson of Madame Cuissard, joined the club as a player with intentions of rebuilding it in honour of his grandmother. Lorient began play in the Division d'Honneur. Cuissard began one of the first Lorient players to maintain a place in the France national team while playing with the club. In 1954, he played on the team that qualified for the 1954 FIFA World Cup. Lorient quickly recovered and, by 1948, was playing in the Championnat de France amateur (CFA). The club spent two years in the league before falling back to the Division d'Honneur. In 1957, Lorient was promoted back to the CFA, but struggled due to being limited financially. Subsequently, the club sought sponsors with the hopes of becoming professional. In 1967, under the chairmanship of both Jean Tomine and René Fougère, Lorient placed a bid to turn professional and was elected to Division 2 by the French League. Incoming president Henri Ducassou agreed to do his best to make professionalism prosper in Lorient.
In the second division, Lorient struggled in the early seventies to consistently stay up in the league table. In the 1974–75 and 1975–76 seasons, the club came close to promotion to Division 1, finishing 3rd in its group on each occasion, one place short of the promotion play-offs. However, the following season, Lorient was relegated to Division 3. The potential of that team had proved above its classification when the club qualified for its first French FA Cup quarter-finals in history. The club subsequently struggled financially and domestically. It went bankrupt in 1978. During this period, under the name "Club des Supporters du FC Lorient" (the supporters legally took over to keep the FC Lorient name alive), Lorient played in the Division Supérieure Régionale (sixth tier of the French football pyramid). In the early 1980s, Georges Guenoum took over the club as president and hired former Lorient player Christian Gourcuff as manager. Surprisingly, under Gourcuff, Lorient quickly climbed back up the French football ladder. In 1983, the club won the Brittany Division d'Honneur title and, the following season, won Division 4. In 1985, they won Division 3 and so were back in Division 2 eight years after their demise at that level! Gourcuff left the club after its first Division 2 campaign, with relegation only being effective through an unfavourable goal difference. Lorient spent the next five years in Division 3 playing under two managers. It went financially bust again in 1990 but was nevertheless allowed to stay in Division 3. In 1991, Gourcuff returned to the club and after almost a decade playing in Division 3, Lorient earned promotion back to Division 2 after winning the second edition of the Championnat National.
Players
Current squad
As of 1 September 2026
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Out on loan
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Former players
For a complete list of FC Lorient players with a Wikipedia article, see Category:FC Lorient players
Management and staff
Club officials
Senior club staff
President: Loïc Féry
General Director: Arnaud Tanguy
Sporting Director: Laurent Koscielny
Sports coordinator: Aziz Mady Mogne
Head coach: Olivier Pantaloni
Assistant head coach: Gérald Baticle, Julien Outrebon, Ingo Goetze
Goalkeeper coach: Olivier Lagarde, Ronald Thomas
Scout: Stéphane Pédron, Baptiste Drouet, Jérôme Fougeron
Club doctor: Vincent Detaille
Medical Director Physiotherapy: Régis Bouyaux
Honours
Domestic
Ligue 2
Champions: 2019–20, 2024–25
Championnat National
Champions: 1994–95
Coupe de France
Champions: 2001–02
Coupe de la Ligue
Runners-up: 2001–02
Trophée des Champions
Runners-up: 2002
Regional
Division d'Honneur (Bretagne)
Champions (5): 1932, 1936, 1957, 1983, 1995
Coupe de Bretagne
Champions (6): 1958, 1970, 1982, 1990, 2000, 2002