The Judo Pro League is back for a third season. On the program: more suspense, more adrenalin, more highlights and more spectacular encounters.

This year, 14 franchises will be vying for the title of French mixed-team champion. With just a few days to go before France's first mixed professional league resumes on October 8, we take a look at the teams involved.

 

Judo Nice Métropole 

The franchise tour was due to start with defending champions Judo Nice Métropole, last year's winners at the expense of SGS Judo. Will Judo Nice Métropole be the first franchise to hold on to its title?

Founded for the first edition of the Pro League, Judo Nice Métropole was born of the merger between Nice Judo Alliance and Olympic Nice Judo, "two rival clubs that were doing well and didn't like each other very much", agrees Mohamed Otmane, director of the latter for some ten years before taking over the presidency of the newborn. And with good fortune, since his fighters reached the final last December.

For the manager, this new competition is "the advent of a sporting project to ensure that our kids don't leave the region". In Nice, "there's a very strong sense of belonging", embodied by a dialect, Nissart, and a symbol, the eagle. This is evidenced by the fervent encouragement of the young people at the Pôle Espoir. "It's the reward for the daily training work carried out throughout the region," explains Mohamed Otmane, who happily includes the neighboring Monaco Judo Club. Indeed, the father of Luca Otmane (PSG) cites the world medals won by Loïc Piétri, son of Monaco's technical director, among his fondest memories. Just like Sofiane Milous' fifth place at the London Olympics, or Maxime Gobert's gold medal at the European Junior Championships in 2021.

Proud to be "a local club" with a 100% team from Nice, Mohamed Otmane hopes to bring further thrills to the capital of the Alpes-Maritimes, alongside footballers from OGC Nice, volleyball and women's basketball.

 

AM Asnières Judo 92

Having reached the Final Four last year, AM Asnières Judo 92 returns to the 3rd edition of the Judo Pro League with the firm intention of making a return to the Final Four. France's leading club with a membership of 1,400, the Hauts-de-Seine flagship doubled up for its first participation in the Judo Pro League, creating a second dedicated structure, AM Judo 92. "It's double the work, but we've known for several years that to reach the top level, you need the resources that come from membership fees, subsidies and partners. Now, the Pro League is a way of reaching partners we didn't have access to before," explains Paul Aspord, a long-standing manager and president since 2000.

At Asnières, the heart of our work lies in training, which produces regular results. The most recent: in 2022 and 2023, a cadet and a cadet from Asnières were crowned world team champions. "Blanc-Mesnil and PSG are more attractive, but we've never tried to recruit elsewhere, we try to do everything in-house", explains the head coach. And it works: in the French junior champion team, five out of seven fighters had started out in baby-judo. "Our teachers are very happy," says Paul Aspord. The only downside to these medal winners is that the club's trainers are now coveted. "One or two have received offers. But they're very keen to pass on the torch. Retaining the loyalty of athletes and instructors is essential for a structure that has "put a lot of emphasis on training" and where results are therefore "longer" in coming.

Auxerre Judo

For its first season in 2023/2024, Auxerre Judo created a surprise by coming from behind to beat ES Blanc-Mesnil Judo in the quarter-finals. This year, the Burgundy franchise is back with a vengeance, aiming to go one better and reach the Final Four. The youngest of the 280 members have already travelled to the French Senate, the National Assembly and the army. We open their minds to the republican values of citizenship through encounters," explains General Secretary Aberahmane Elassri, who has organized exchanges with senators, deputies and members of the police force. His young people also attended the national day of tribute to the victims of terrorism on March 11. With a guiding principle: "Learn what courage, investment, honor, commitment, participation and involvement are all about", says the manager.

In the capital of the Yonne region, judo is fighting to find its place, with the complicity of AJ Auxerre footballers, who have promoted the martial art in their Abbe-Deschamps stadium. The General Secretary's brother, Nasser Elassri, made the connection in his capacity as former physical trainer at AJA's training center.

With the Judo Pro League, Auxerre intends to "give a chance to a certain number of athletes who are struggling to make ends meet", and "promote the club and the region", adds Aberahmane Elassri, who would like to see the event hosted in Sens or Avallon, not just in Auxerre. "We need the Pro League to ignite the department and the region," he says, to stand a chance of obtaining the creation of an elite departmental center, "a real structure where kids can do intensive sport and be competitive from a very early age.

OM Judo 

Carrying a name as recognized and popular as that of Olympique de Marseille is "priceless", says Stéphane Mongellas, who initiated the link-up with the soccer club in 2012. All the more so as judo is its only omnisport discipline, renewed each year in the form of a license. As the OMTV channel has disappeared, French championship fights are no longer broadcast, but other tools are still available. And as for images, in recent years champions such as Lucie Decosse and Cyrille Maret have kicked off matches at the legendary Stade Vélodrome. Strong images to support the development of the judo section.

Stéphane Mongellas, who was already practising, had to join PSG Judo because there was no place for him in his home town. It was this experience that gave him the idea of approaching OM. "It was no longer possible to supply Parisian clubs," he smiles. Today, most OM Judo members are cadets or juniors. The Pro League team is therefore largely made up of outsiders, two-thirds of whom come from Montreuil, in Seine-Saint-Denis, with only one or two from the club. But the management team hopes to reverse this trend. "The idea is to fill our Pro League team with our youngsters as soon as they're ready," says the head coach, delighted that the OM logo on the judoji is "a hit" and attracting the region's best hopefuls. Who, perhaps one day, will follow in the footsteps of Alexandre Iddir, who went through the Marseille "Pôle Espoir" and then OM Judo before taking part in the Olympic Games in 2016 and 2021 (team gold medallist).