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Historical background
ASEC, the letters stand for Association Sportive Employees Commercial, was founded in 1947 by a group of Abidjan businessmen who wanted to promote sport amongst local youths. The club claim to be supported by 80% of Ivory Coast soccer fans, with their popularity stretching across ethnic groups. Their supporters call themselves ‘actionairres’ ‘the shareholders’ which demonstrates the close link between the club and their followers. The team themselves are nicknamed ‘Mimosas’ from their yellow shirts which remind people of the flowering trees that are found in the capital.
ASEC have the reputation of being one of the best run clubs in sub-Sahara Africa with an excellent training ground and a renowned youth scheme that has produced stars such as Kolo Toure and Salomon Kalou. There are also many extra touches, such as a weekly club newspaper.
1950- 1979
As early as the 1950’s ASEC were employing a full time coach, the first being
Frenchman Guy Fabre and their first success came in the old French West African Cup. Although they never won that trophy they were runners up in 1956, 1957 and 1958. In the sixties Konan Yobuet left ASEC to become one of first Africans to pursue a professional career in France. He was followed by one of Africa’s all-time great players, Laurent Pokou, whose goals inspired ASEC to a string of league titles in the early seventies. According to football legend, when Pokou was injured in a collision with a rival goalkeeper the Ivory Coast President threatened to have the offending player jailed.
During this period ASEC became regular contestants in African football and in 1971 and 1976 progressed as far as the semi-finals of the Champions Cup.
1980- 1989
New stars emerged in the eighties, most notably winger Youssef Fofana who later played several seasons with Monaco. The first half of the eighties brought more African near misses, including another semi-final appearance in the 1983 Cup Winners Cup. That season their tie with Stationary Stores was abandoned following a riot by irate Nigerian fans who thought the ASEC goalkeeper was using ‘juju’ magic to protect his goal.
This was not a particularly happy period for the club, with crises in the boardroom and the best young stars increasingly likely to head overseas. As a result ASEC won only one national title between 1976 and 1989.
1989- 1993
In 1989 Roger Ouegnin became chairman and started to rebuild the club’s infrastructure. An early reward came with a win in the 1990 West African Cup and the same year ASEC started on a run of six consecutive league titles. From 1989 they went a world record 108 domestic games without defeat and when the national team became champions of Africa in 1992 seven ASEC players took part in the final. Most famous of this generation was the profile goal scorer Abdoulaye Traore
The coach from 1989-1992 was Frenchman Philippe Troussier, nicknamed ‘the white magician’ who later took charge of the Japanese team at the 2002 World Cup.
In 1993 former French international Jean-Marc Guillou established the famous AESC youth academy. He was to work in the Ivory Coast for nearly eight years, including a spell as head coach.
1993-2000
ASEC were now regular contestants in the African Champions Cup, reaching the semi finals in 1992 and 1993. Their 1993 clash with Asante saw several Ivory Coast fans murdered as they travelled to or from the game and led to both Ivory Coast and Ghana clubs being suspended from African competitions.
Argentina’s Oscar Fullone, known as ‘El Professor’ took charge of the team in 1995, leading the club to 6 domestic trophies between 1995 and 1997. In 1995 they also came close to adding the African title. The semi-final in Abidjan produced a vintage display that saw ASEC destroy Egyptian side Ismaili 5-1, setting up a dream final with South African giants Orlando Pirates. After returning from Johannesburg with a 2-2 draw ASEC looked firm favourites, only to lose the home leg 0-1.
Two years later the old knock-out format was abandoned in favour of the Champions League and ASEC won the new competition in 1998. The team of this period included international midfield player Tchiressoua Guel, veteran international striker Donald Sie and Nigerian forward John Zaki. Another legend of this period is goalkeeper Losseni Konate who joined the club in 1989 and stayed on to win 11 titles with them.
2000 -
The ASEC ‘convoy belt’ continues to produce star players and up until 2005 many of these went on to Beveren in the Belgium league, where Jean-Marc Guillou was based at the time. Emmanuel Eboue was one player to follow this path, playing 25 games for ASEC, then three seasons in Belgium before moving to the Premier League with Arsenal. Despite this exodus ASEC’s team of local stars, strengthened by imported players from other West African nations, won 7 consecutive league titles from 2000 to 2006. In 2008 they set a record by becoming the only club to reach the group stage of the African Champions League on nine occasions. A 10th appearance however is proving elusive and in 2010 ASEC was eliminated by Zanaco, missing the group stage for the second consecutive year.
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