Prior to the creation of AS Nancy, the city of Nancy was host to football by
FC Nancy and
US Frontière. FC Nancy was formed in 1901, while
US Frontière was founded in 1910. Both clubs were a part of the
Ligue de Lorraine. FC Nancy continued to play football through the professional transition. The club achieved very little during its 64 years of existence only winning the second division twice in 1946 and 1958. FC Nancy did reach the final of the
Coupe de France in 1953 and 1962, however, on both appearances, the club lost to
Lille and
Saint-Étienne, respectively. In 1965, with the club enduring financial difficulties during the
1963–64 season, mainly due to the club's being abandoned by the city's municipality and its supporters according to its president, Nancy folded shortly before the new season. The idea of a new professional club in the city was thought of by Claude Cuny in spring 1964 based on amateur
Association sportive Lorraine, formerly known as
Union sportive Frontière. Cuny had previously worked with FC Nancy, but left the club prior to its destruction. Cuny is considered one of the leaders of French football mainly because of his innovative ideas and strategies. After forming Nancy, he created the first youth academy of French football. Prior to the club beginning its life as a football club, Cuny devised a strategy to immerse the club into the city's public. First, he sent out over 18,000 letters and petitions to draw interest to the team. Once the public gained notice, Cuny organised friendly matches to raise funds for the club. After accruing enough money, Cuny sought to turn the club professional, and, despite several setbacks, on 16 June 1967, Nancy were granted professional status and inserted into
Division 2, the second level of French football. The club's first manager was
René Pleimelding, a former French international who played for FC Nancy. Nancy, subsequently, recruited several former FC Nancy players such as
Antoine Redin, as well as players from the
region such as Michel Lanini, Gérard Braun and Roger Formica. In Nancy's
inaugural season of football, the club finished tenth in the league table and reached the Round of 16 in the
Coupe de France. Two seasons later, the club earned promotion to Division 1 and finished in 13th place in
its first season in the league. In 1972,
Michel Platini arrived at the club, initially with the club's reserve team. His first full season as a player came in the 1974–75 season whilst the club was playing in the second division, having suffered relegation from Division 1 the previous season. The season was a success for both club and player: Nancy achieved its first major honour winning Division 2, while Platini appeared in 32 league matches and scored 17 goals. In the ensuing three seasons in Division 1, Nancy, led by Platini,
Jean-Michel Moutier,
Carlos Curbelo,
Paco Rubio and
Philippe Jeannol, finished in the top ten. Platini won the
French Player of the Year award in two of those seasons. In 1978, Nancy achieved its highest honour to date after winning the
Coupe de France. In the final, the club faced
Nice and defeated its southern foes 1–0 with Platini scoring the lone goal.
President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing presented Platini with the trophy to cap off the victory. Nancy's Coupe de France triumph saw the club qualify for
European competition for the first time in its short history. The club participated in the
1978–79 edition of the
European Cup Winners' Cup and were eliminated in the second round after losing 4–3 on aggregate to Swiss club
Servette. The club played most of the season without Platini who was injured. Platini left the club after the season, however most of the club's nucleus remained. In the team's first season without Platini, Nancy finished in 11th place. In the next three seasons, Nancy finished in the top ten. After the 1984 season, Moutier and Rubio became the last of the club's influential players to depart and Nancy suffered a free-fall finishing in the next three seasons. The implosion concluded after the
1986–87 season when Nancy finished in 19th place, thus falling back to Division 2. The only ray of sunshine for the club during this declining stint was the
testimonial match held for Platini on 23 May 1988 following the players' club and international retirement. That evening, fans were treated to an exhibition that featured Platini,
Pelé and
Diego Maradona. . In the
1988–89 season, Nancy earned promotion back to the first division. However, the club spent the entire decade rotating between Division 1 and Division 2. The club won two second-division titles during this stint and finally earned promotion back to the first division, now called
Ligue 1, for the
2005–06 season after winning Ligue 2. In Nancy's first season back in Ligue 1, the club won the
Coupe de la Ligue defeating Nice 2–1 in
the final. during the
2006 Coupe de la Ligue final, in which Nancy won the title. Nancy supporters arrived at the
Stade de France courtesy of 11 special trains, while more than 300 buses and thousands of cars from the city also arrived in Paris. The cup victory allowed Nancy to participate in the
UEFA Cup with the club eventually making it to the Round of 32 before losing to
Shakhtar Donetsk. The first half of the
2007–08 season for Nancy was the club's best ever start to a season in the top division with 35 points after 19 games and sitting in second place. On 4 November 2007, in a match against
Bordeaux, the club celebrated its 40th anniversary of existence with a special event involving many of the club's former players, club officials, presidents, and coaches. After a good second half start, Nancy sat in third place on the final match day of the season. However, the club finished one spot short of qualifying for the
UEFA Champions League, losing 3–2 to
Rennes, while fourth-placed
Marseille defeated
Strasbourg 4–3 to claim the spot. Nancy still managed to claim the league's best defence, alongside Nice. The 30 goals conceded equalled the club's record achieved in the 1976–77 season. After managing mid-table performances during the following 4 years at the top-flight, the club got relegated in May 2013, finishing only 2 points behind 17th place
Ajaccio. Following their relegation, the club nearly got promoted back to the first division, finishing 4th and 3 points shy behind
Caen and a spot to the top-flight. Nancy remained a strong candidate for promotion during the entire
2014–15 season, but ultimately finished 5th, 6 points behind 3rd place
Angers. AS Nancy is the rival of
Metz, a city in Lorraine. The match between the two teams is one of the most dangerous encounters in the French football, often classified at the highest level of risk matches because of clashes between supporters of the two camps. This match is a regional derby for the supremacy of a city. played for AS Nancy at the home game in September 2022 at the
Stade Marcel-Picot stadium. In 2009,
Neil El Aynaoui joined the youth academy of Nancy at the age of eight. He signed his first professional contract with the club on 3 June 2021 and was sold to
RC Lens for just €600,000 in the summer of 2023. in July 2025, El Aynaoui moved to
AS Roma in Italy in a €25 million deal on a five-year contract. The following year, the club still was a strong candidate for promotion. Finally, on 25 April 2016, after 3 years of absence, the club assured promotion to
Ligue 1 with 3 games to spare by beating
Sochaux 1–0 on match day 35. On match day 37, they beat
Evian 1–0 to clinch the
Ligue 2 title, their fifth second division crown after 1975, 1990, 1998 and 2005. The following season,
2016–17, the club finished in 19th place, and were relegated to the Ligue 2 after one season. They remained in that division until
2022, being relegated to the
Championnat National for the first time in club history. On May 2, 2025, Nancy crowned champions and secure promotion to
Ligue 2 from next season after defeat
Nîmes Olympique with narrowly 1-0 a goal winning by Teddy Bouriaud in 53rd minute, ended three years in third tier and return to second tier after three years absence. ==Home Stadium==