Auxerre was founded on 29 December 1905 by a young priest, in a small town in Burgundy. On 29 December 2026 it turns 121 years old. It is the club that became a legend without a big city behind it, only with patience and youth academies.

A priest and the town's young people

The founder was Abbé Ernest Deschamps, a vicar at the Saint-Étienne cathedral in Auxerre. He ran the Saint-Joseph Catholic patronage, a youth organisation that had existed since 1887. In 1905 France passed the law separating Church and State, and Deschamps responded by setting up an association under the 1901 law on associations.

That is how the Association de la Jeunesse Auxerroise, the "Auxerre Youth Association", or simply AJA, was born. The name tells the whole story: it was a club for the town's young people. Deschamps died in 1949, and the club's ground now bears his name, the Stade de l'Abbé-Deschamps.

Blue, white and black mourning

According to tradition, Auxerre's blue and white are the colours of the Virgin Mary. It is an explanation that fits the club's church roots perfectly, but French Wikipedia presents it as a legend.

There is also a stranger story: from 1906 to 1909 the team wore a black shirt. It is said to have been a sign of mourning after the separation of Church and State. Until 1980 the shirt was mainly blue, and then it became mainly white, to be seen better under the floodlights in evening matches.

The Maltese cross

Since 1987 Auxerre's crest has been a blue shield with a silver Maltese cross, a symbol of Catholic youth movements. The club's name sits above it. The cross has been with the team since its early years.

For the 120th anniversary, in December 2025, Macron made a tribute shirt in just 1,905 numbered pieces. It is white, with a polo collar, blue cuffs and a large blue cross on the chest. At the neck it carries the motto "L'AJA est bâtie sur pierre, l'AJA ne périra pas": AJA is built on stone and will not perish.

The Guy Roux era

In 1961 Guy Roux arrived in Auxerre as player-coach. He stayed on the bench until 2005, with a short break, and took the team from the third tier to the first in 1980. Auxerre became a byword for a great academy.

In 1993 it reached the UEFA Cup semi-finals and went out on penalties to Dortmund. In 1996 it did the great double, with the first French league title in its history and the cup. It had already lifted the Coupe de France in 1994, and would win it again in 2003 and 2005.

Players who made history

Auxerre has been home to Eric Cantona, Basile Boli and Laurent Blanc, who was part of the double-winning team. Three of its players, Guivarc'h, Diomède and Charbonnier, were in the France side that won the 1998 World Cup. Djibril Cissé was the league's top scorer twice in its shirt.

After hard years in Ligue 2, Auxerre won the division in 2024 and returned to Ligue 1. Since then it has held on in the top flight, finishing 11th in 2024-25 and 15th in 2025-26.

Celebrate with us

One hundred and twenty-one years on, Auxerre stays true to its roots: to the town's young people, to blue and white and to Abbé Deschamps' cross.

Happy birthday, Auxerre! Many happy days at the Abbé-Deschamps and many more talents from your academy.

See our collectible jerseys at sportarena.gr.

Photo: Stade de l'Abbé-Deschamps in Auxerre – Vicente Auxerre, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.