Grenoble Foot 38, commonly referred to as simply Grenoble or GF38, is a French association football club based in Grenoble. The club plays its home matches at the Stade des Alpes, a sports complex based in the heart of the city, and wears white and blue. The original incarnation of the club was founded in 1892 and, in 1997, was formed into the club that exists today as a result of a merger. Grenoble currently plays in Ligue 2, the second level of French football, after having gone into bankruptcy and relegation to the fifth level of French football in 2011.
History
The club was founded in 1892 as Football Club de Grenoble. In 1997, a merger of Olympique Grenoble Isère and Norcap Olympique led to the Grenoble Foot 38 incarnation. Olympique Grenoble Isère played in Ligue 1 in the 1960–61 and 1962–63 seasons. In 2004, the club was acquired by Index Holdings, a Japanese mobile software company, therefore becoming the first French football club to have foreign owners. The price of the deal was around €2 million. The new owners invested in the Stade des Alpes, a new ground with an initial capacity of 20,000 which opened in February 2008. Grenoble finished the 2007–08 Ligue 2 season in third place, thus returning to Ligue 1 for the first time since 1963. In the 2008–09 Ligue 1 season, Grenoble finished 13th. However, after losing their first eleven games of the following season, they were eventually relegated with six games remaining amidst severe financial problems. The professional football club was liquidated in July 2011 with debts of €2.9 million, and relegated administratively to Championnat de France Amateur 2, the fifth tier. Index provided false financial statements during their ownership of the club. Now an amateur side, Grenoble won promotion from Championnat de France Amateur 2 at the first attempt in 2012, and were champions of the 2016–17 Championnat de France Amateur, returning to Championnat National for the 2017–18 season. They secured their second successive promotion to Ligue 2 on 27 May 2018, after an aggregate play-off victory over Bourg-en-Bresse.
Below are the notable former players who have represented Grenoble and its predecessors in league and international competition since the club's foundation in 1997. To appear in the section below, a player must have played in at least 80 official matches for the club. For a complete list of Grenoble Foot 38 players, see :Category:Grenoble Foot 38 players
