At the beginning of the year, we made an interesting interview with Raphaël Reynaud the head coach of the France U19 team with whom we talked about the development of France futsal which will shortly be one of the best in the world.

“There is still room for big progress is the promotion of our sport. I believe that the success of the France national team and the arrival of Ricardinho in our league will popularize futsal even more”, Reynaud told us back then.

France futsal is developing at a rapid pace, and the headline news in the futsal world in 2020 is a relatively unknown club from Paris’ suburbs Villeneuve-la-Garenne and Asnieres-Sur-Seine which started to create the true „Futsal Galacticos“.

ACCS Futsal Club Paris VA 92 become known to the global futsal community at the end of 2019 when France press started speculating that ACCS will be the next club of Ricardinho, the six-time Futsal Planet Awards Best player and arguably the best futsal player of all time.

> 5 things you didn't know about Ricardinho

At the beginning of 2020, the speculations proved to be true, the 34-year old Portuguese player and current European champion confirmed that he will sign for ACCS on a three-year contract starting in July 2020, with a salary of more than €1 million over 3 years.

It was a big announcement because the Portuguese superstar is a new player of the relatively unknown club from a country that doesn't have a long-lasting futsal tradition.

But, Ricardinho's arrival was just a start. It was the beginning of the making of Futsal Galacticos…

The brief history of ACCS

The ACCES (the Citizen, Cultural, Educational and Sports Association) was created in 2008 in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, but the futsal section of the association was established in 2014. The club started participating in the lowest tier of France futsal (5th division).

The club secured the promotion to the higher rank in each season they have played. The first big impact on the national futsal stage the ACCES had in 2017 when they won a national cup as a third-tier club and become the first regional team to win the national trophy!

During the campaign, the club aroused the national interest after the professional footballers like Frank Ribery, Serge Aurier and Georges-Kévin Nkoudou gave support to the club, as well as the former football superstar Roberto Carlos.

The following season (2017/18) club won Division 2 and secured the promotion to the top tier. In 2018, France national team made a debut on the European championship (they defeated Croatia in playoffs as an underdog), and most of the Futsal Tricolore players on that team were part of the ACCES, out of which Kevin Ramirez was the only player with professional status in France back then. That was a confirmation that even then, as a second-division club, ACCES was one of the strongest and best organized French clubs. Back then, their yearly-budget was more than €300.000 with six employees.

Their debut season in Division 1 proved their status, finishing second in the regular part of the season, with one point behind Toulon ÉF. In semi-finals ACCES defeated Kremlin-Bicȇtre Futsal 5:4 after the extra time and lost 3:4 to current champions Toulon EF in finals, conceding the fourth goal in extra time.

The 2019/20 season

The club entered the current season with a new name after ACCES merged with Paris Métropole Futsal and changed the name to ACCS Futsal Club Paris VA 92.

The club also brought several new signings, of which the most resounding were Serbian national team goalkeeper Miodrag Aksentijević, and two Moroccan national team members and African champions, Bilal Bakkali and Soufiane El Mesrar.

> African futsal kings: We have the quality for the next stage of the World Cup!

The whole of ACCS's 2019/20 campaign can be named - „super-dominant“. In 15 rounds, before the championship stopped due to coronavirus outbreak, ACCS had 14 victories and one defeat with „unnatural“ goal-difference of 103:29 (they were scoring almost seven goals per game!). ACCS ended the season with 8 points more than second-placed team Pévèle FC Orchies but they have not yet been proclaimed as champions.

> Who would win the title if the national championships end up – today?

The creation of the Futsal Galacticos

After they announced the signing of Ricardinho, ACCS didn't stop only with the Portuguese superstar!

Shortly after, „The Lions“ announced the signing of Jesús Velasco, who managed Inter Movistar for seven years until July 2019 and won 5 Spanish national titles, 7 domestic cups and 2 Champions Leagues.

Besides bringing arguably the world's best player (Ricardinho) and coach (Velasco), they took two more players from Inter Movistar: the 33-year-old Brazilian pivot Humberto (2 La Ligas, 2 UEFA Champions League and 4 domestic cups) who has a rich international career and the Spanish national team defender Carlos Ortiz Jiménez (multiple European champions at the club and national level).

Do you think that is all? If you do, you are wrong…

ACCS also brought one of the best French players, 26-year-old pivot Landry N'Gala and their most recent signing is another current European champion Bruno Coelho, the 32-year-old Portuguese winger who played in Benfica for last nine years.

So, what can we expect from a team that has so many superb players and one of the most successful coaches in futsal history?

We are eagerly waiting for the new season and seeing Futsal Galacticos in action…