FC Metz: Frédéric Antonetti's High-Flying Underdogs

We all love an underdog story. From Greece winning Euro 2004, to Leicester lifting the Premier League crown in 2016, there’s something innately special about an unfancied side beating the odds to better the big boys. The latest iteration of a small club punching well above their weight doesn’t quite hit the heights of Leicester’s triumph, but to Metz fans, that’s certainly not the case. 

The team from the northeast of France currently lie in an unlikely sixth place in Ligue 1, and are pushing for a Europa League spot next season. Their squad is valued at just £68.7 million by Transfermarkt, a pittance in comparison to others in France, PSG being the prime example, but with Frédéric Antonetti at the helm, they’re fighting near the top of Ligue 1.

Last year they finished a lowly 15th after winning Ligue 2 in 2018/19, and despite selling star asset Habib Diallo to Strasbourg for £9 million in the summer, they’ve found their feet and a winning formula. A key ingredient attributed to an underdog story is the ability of the team to become more than 11 individual pieces, and instead joining together to form one, connected, coherent machine capable of challenging a side with far greater resources at their disposal.

This most certainly applies to Metz, who don’t have a single player in the top 25 goal-scorers in Ligue 1 this year; they favour togetherness over a single talent dragging them to get results, unlike Amine Gouiri’s talisman-like impact at Nice.