The surpises seemingly had no end in France this season. Strasbourg, Gueugnon… the amateurs not only won the second division, but reached high levels at the Cup tournament, eliminating mighty St. Etienne. Bellow them in Group A of Second Division finished a club nobody knew about – AJ Auxerre. The nobodies finished 4th in Group A, but did better than Gueugnon in the cup – they reached the final. The other finalists were FC Nantes and looked like the big boys would have a walkover…
Standing, from left :Maryan Szeja, Olivier Borel, Lucien Denis, Christian Roque, Gérard Hallet, Jean-Paul Noël, Dominique Cuperly
First row: Philippe Delancray, Jean-Marc Schaer, Serge Mesonès, Paul Brot, André Truffaut, Josef Klose.
Well, anonimous team… Only two players are worth a note – both Polish. Maryan Szeja, aging former national team player, and Josef Close, who not only never played for Poland, but did not even play for a strong club – he arrived from Odra (Opole) in 1978, tha same year his son was born. This, of course, was not a news in real time… the whole fame of Josef Close is in that he is the father of Miroslav Close. As a player, Josef Close perhaps had his best season exactly in his first season with Auxerre – playing at the Cup final. The anonimous team with two not so great Poles tried hard – Nantes was unable to best them. The final went to overtime – and only then the stars of Nantes overcome Auxerre : 4-1.
This was the first real sign of rising AJ Auxerre – not yet ready for anything big, but making their first mark in French football. It looked accidental at the time.
As for the winners, it was more than salvaging the season – FC Nantes never won the Cup before. Their very first.
This is not the winning team, but still a picture of the solid squad Nantes had at the time – Hugo Bargas was clearly stepping down. But it was a team with a future and winning the cup boosted their spirits. They were not going down, no way.
And that was that : new champion, new cup winner, new second division winner, although unallowed to play in first division, rising club, previously unknown – the season of surprises.