# 2022–23 FC Nantes season

The 2022–23 season was the 80th season in the history of FC Nantes and their 10th consecutive season in the top flight. The club participated in Ligue 1, the Coupe dr France, the Trophée des Champions and the UEFA Europa League. The season covers the period from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023.
Despite a 14-match winless run between February and May, which led them being in danger of relegation, Les Canaris ultimately preserved their top flight status with a 1–0 win over Angers, and Auxerre 1–3 defeat to Lens, thus avoiding a return to the second tier of French football for the first time since the 2012–13 season.

## Players
### First-team squad

    As of 30 January 2023
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 1 | GK | FRA | Alban Lafont (captain) |
| 3 | DF | BRA | Andrei Girotto |
| 4 | DF | FRA | Nicolas Pallois (vice-captain) |
| 5 | MF | ESP | Pedro Chirivella |
| 7 | FW | FRA | Evann Guessand (on loan from Nice) |
| 8 | MF | COD | Samuel Moutoussamy |
| 10 | MF | FRA | Ludovic Blas |
| 11 | FW | FRA | Marcus Coco |
| 14 | FW | CMR | Ignatius Ganago |
| 16 | GK | FRA | Rémy Descamps |
| 17 | MF | FRA | Moussa Sissoko |
| 21 | DF | CMR | Jean-Charles Castelletto |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 24 | DF | FRA | Sébastien Corchia |
| 25 | MF | FRA | Florent Mollet |
| 26 | DF | FRA | Jaouen Hadjam |
| 27 | MF | NGA | Moses Simon |
| 28 | DF | FRA | Fabien Centonze |
| 29 | MF | FRA | Quentin Merlin |
| 30 | GK | SRB | Denis Petrić |
| 31 | FW | EGY | Mostafa Mohamed (on loan from Galatasaray) |
| 38 | DF | BRA | João Victor (on loan from Benfica) |
| 93 | DF | MLI | Charles Traoré |
| 99 | FW | ALG | Andy Delort (on loan from Nice) |

### Reserve squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 15 | FW | COM | Adel Mahamoud |
| 18 | MF | FRA | Samuel Yepié Yepié |
| 19 | MF | FRA | Mohamed Achi |
| 20 | MF | FRA | Lohann Doucet |
| 22 | MF | ARM | Gor Manvelyan |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 23 | DF | FRA | Robin Voisine |
| 55 | FW | FRA | Kader Bamba |
| 61 | FW | FRA | Joe-Loïc Affamah |
| 63 | DF | CIV | Michel Junior Diaz |

### Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 53 | FW | FRA | Bridge Ndilu (at SO Cholet until 30 June 2023) |
| — | DF | FRA | Yannis M'Bemba (at Le Puy until 30 June 2023) |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| — | DF | FRA | Ryan Sabry (at Stade Briochin until 30 June 2023) |
| — | MF | FRA | Abou Ba (at Seraing until 30 June 2023) |

## Transfers
### In

| No. | Pos. | Player | Transferred from | Fee | Date |
| 55 | FW | Abdoul Kader Bamba | Amiens | Loan return | 30 June 2022 |
| 53 | FW | Bridge Ndilu | Quevilly Rouen | Loan return | 30 June 2022 |
| 17 | MF | Moussa Sissoko | Watford | Undisclosed | 1 July 2022 |
| 7 | FW | Evann Guessand | Nice | Loan | 12 July 2022 |
| 31 | FW | Mostafa Mohamed | Galatasaray | Loan | 21 July 2022 |
| 14 | FW | Ignatius Ganago | Lens | €4.4M | 1 September 2022 |
| 28 | DF | Fabien Centonze | Metz | €4M | 22 September 2022 |

### Out

| No. | Pos. | Player | Transferred to | Fee | Date |
| 26 | FW | Osman Bukari | Gent | Loan return | 30 June 2022 |
| 8 | MF | Wylan Cyprien | Parma | Loan return | 30 June 2022 |
| 19 | FW | Willem Geubbels | Monaco | Loan return | 30 June 2022 |
| 6 | MF | Roli Pereira de Sa | Sochaux | Free | 1 July 2022 |
| 20 | FW | Jean-Kévin Augustin | Basel | Undisclosed | 1 July 2022 |
| 23 | FW | Randal Kolo Muani | Eintracht Frankfurt | Free | 1 July 2022 |
| 7 | FW | Kalifa Coulibaly | Red Star Belgrade | Free | 29 August 2022 |
| 53 | FW | Bridge Ndilu | SO Cholet | Loan | 17 September 2022 |

## Pre-season and friendlies

Win  Draw  Loss  Fixtures

## Competitions
### Overall record

| Competition | First match | Last match | Starting round | Final position | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record |
| Competition | First match | Last match | Starting round | Final position | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Win % |
| Ligue 1 | 7 August 2022 | 3 June 2023 | Matchday 1 | 16th | 38 | 7 | 15 | 16 | 37 | 55 | −18 | 018.42 |
| Coupe de France | 7 January 2023 | 29 April 2023 | Round of 64 | Runners-up | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 7 | +0 | 050.00 |
| Trophée des Champions | 31 July 2022 | 31 July 2022 | Final | Runners-up | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | −4 | 000.00 |
| UEFA Europa League | 8 September 2022 | 23 February 2023 | Group stage | Knockout round play-offs | 8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 15 | −8 | 037.50 |
| Total | Total | Total | Total | Total | 53 | 13 | 18 | 22 | 51 | 81 | −30 | 024.53 |
Source: Soccerway

### Ligue 1
#### League table

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 14 | Brest | 38 | 11 | 11 | 16 | 44 | 54 | −10 | 44 | |
| 15 | Strasbourg | 38 | 9 | 13 | 16 | 51 | 59 | −8 | 40 | |
| 16 | Nantes | 38 | 7 | 15 | 16 | 37 | 55 | −18 | 36 | |
| 17 | Auxerre (R) | 38 | 8 | 11 | 19 | 35 | 63 | −28 | 35 | Relegation to Ligue 2 |
| 18 | Ajaccio (R) | 38 | 7 | 5 | 26 | 23 | 74 | −51 | 26 | Relegation to Ligue 2 |

#### Results summary

| Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Home | Home | Home | Home | Home | Home | Away | Away | Away | Away | Away | Away |
Source: Ligue 1

#### Results by round

| Round | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 |
| Ground | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | H | A | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H |
| Result | D | D | L | W | D | L | L | D | L | L | W | D | D | L | D | D | W | D | W | D | L | W | W | L | L | L | D | D | L | D | L | D | L | L | D | L | L | W |
| Position | 11 | 13 | 15 | 11 | 10 | 13 | 15 | 15 | 16 | 19 | 14 | 15 | 15 | 16 | 15 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 15 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 16 |

#### Matches

The league fixtures were announced on 17 June 2022.

### UEFA Europa League
#### Group stage

The draw for the group stage was held on 26 August 2022.
| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification | FRE | NAN | QRB | OLY |
| 1 | SC Freiburg | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 13 | 3 | +10 | 14 | Advance to round of 16 | — | 2–0 | 2–1 | 1–1 |
| 2 | Nantes | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 11 | −5 | 9 | Advance to knockout round play-offs | 0–4 | — | 2–1 | 2–1 |
| 3 | Qarabağ | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 5 | +4 | 8 | Transfer to Europa Conference League | 1–1 | 3–0 | — | 0–0 |
| 4 | Olympiacos | 6 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 11 | −9 | 2 | | 0–3 | 0–2 | 0–3 | — |

#### Knockout phase
##### Knockout round play-offs

The draw for the knockout round play-offs was held on 7 November 2022.