Le Mans Sports Club were founded in 1900, but it was not until 1908 that a
football club existed within it. Le Mans qualified for the
Championnat de la France in 1910, but were heavily overturned by Saint-Servan. Gaining a huge reputation up to World War I, Le Mans SC plunged into obscurity by World War II before joining the war league in 1942. The football section of
Union Sportive du Mans was founded in 1903. The current club was formed through a merger between Union Sportive du Mans and Le Mans Sports Club on 12 June 1985. Upon its founding, former football player Bernard Deferrez was appointed manager. Le Mans UC spent most of its early years in Ligue 2. In the
2003–04 season, the club achieved promotion to
Ligue 1 for the first time, but were immediately relegated. Le Mans returned to the first division for the
2005–06 season and successfully remained in the league for the next four seasons. The club suffered relegation back to Ligue 2 in the
2009–10 season. Midway through the campaign, on 2 December 2009, Le Mans announced that it was changing its name from Le Mans Union Club 72 to Le Mans FC. Le Mans moved to the MMArena midway through the
2010–11 season, comfortably in the promotion spots for a return to Ligue 1, but a bad run sees them finish 4th, missing promotion on goal difference. The failure to achieve promotion is costly, as the club sees its payroll limited by the DNCG. Many players left, and relegation was only narrowly avoided. The club survived by appeal an attempt by DNCG to relegate them to
Championnat National. The following
season they were relegated on the field, and a long summer of legal battles saw them liquidated and reforming in
Maine (province) Division d'Honneur as an amateur club. Promotion to
Championnat de France Amateur 2 was achieved on the first attempt, and promotion from that division was only narrowly missed in 2014–15 and 2015–16. On the third attempt, promotion to the new
Championnat National 2 was obtained in
2016–17, when Le Mans finished as one of the best runners up in the competition. Le Mans was promoted for the second season in a row winning
Group D and being promoted to the
2018–19 Championnat National, the club would achieve a third consecutive promotion after successfully overcoming
Gazélec Ajaccio in the
Ligue 2 relegation play-off final with a 3-2 aggregate score, swapping places with the Corsican club who, only three years before had been members of the top-flight themselves. The club were in 19th place in Ligue 2 when the season was terminated early due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the club supporting an LFP proposal which would have seen Ligue 2 operate temporarily with 22 clubs, meaning they would stay in the division, the FFF ruled on 27 May 2020 that they were to be relegated to
Championnat National. On 17 May 2025, Le Mans secured promotion to
Ligue 2 from next season after win against
FC Versailles 2–0 in Final matchweek and return to second tier after five years absence. In August 2025, Tennis champion
Novak Djokovic became a co-owner of Le Mans FC. The acquisition was made through the Brazilian consortium
OutField, alongside
Formula 1 drivers
Felipe Massa and
Kevin Magnussen, as well as
Georgios Frangulis, CEO of the OakBerry brand. In February 2026,
Thibaut Courtois also joined the ownership group after investing in OutField through his investment company NxtPlay, further strengthening the consortium led by Djokovic. == Players ==