Belgium, province: Luxembourg = Luxemburg
11 VII 2025 / RES Signeulx - ES Bleid B 1-3 / Pre-season friendly
Timeline
- 1915 / Foundation of a first football club in Signeulx, a village in the far south of Belgian Luxembourg, right on the border with France. The new club is given the name Sporting Club (SC) Signeulx. It is unclear if this club ever joined the official Belgian Football Association (URBSFA / KBVB), but its existence probably did not last longer than a couple of years only. It is unclear where the ground of this short-lived club was situated.
- 1942 / Foundation of a new football club in Signeulx, which is given the name Éclair Sportif (ES) Signeulx, being accepted as new member of the Belgian FA with registration number 3416. ES Signeulx starts its life as a competitive club in Belgian Luxembourg’s Regional League 3. ES Signeulx settles on a pitch laid out at Rue du 113e Régiment d'Infanterie Française, right on the French border.
- 1946 / ES Signeulx conquers the title in Luxembourg’s Regional League 3 ahead of clubs such as SC Habay-la-Neuve, ES Izel, and ES Bellefontaine (matr. 3403). As such, the club accedes to Regional League 2.
- 1949 / After three seasons in Luxembourg’s Regional League 2, ES Signeulx folds, ceasing all activities. Registration number 3416 is erased from the Belgian FA’s official lists.
- 1961 / Foundation of a third successive football club in Signeulx, which is given the exact same name as its predecessor, Éclair Sportif (ES) Signeulx, acquiring membership of the Belgian FA with registration number 6462. The driving forces behind the foundation of the club are the village priest, Fr Julien Legueube, who also becomes the club’s first chairman, and the head of the local customs office, Victor Moureau, who takes on the role of secretary. A pitch is laid out for the club in the hamlet of Saint-Rémy, to the west of Signeulx, on the fields of a local farmer, whose son is part of ES Signeulx’s squad. The majority of the players are recruited from neighbouring clubs SC Mussy and ES Mussonaise, including goalkeeper Guy Bertrand. The club starts its life in Provincial League 3, the lowest division of Belgian Luxembourg’s league pyramid.
- 1962 / Moving away from the pitch at Saint-Rémy – with the farmer owning the ground losing interest in the football project, as his son stops playing – ES Signeulx finds a new home on a plot of land at Route de Bleid, to the northwest of the village, close to a roadside chapel.
- 1967 / ES Signeulx finishes as runners-up in Belgian Luxembourg’s Provincial League 3A, 6 points behind champions Excelsior Fouches.
- 1971 / Moving away from its pitch at Route de Bleid after nine years, ES Signeulx settles at a newly laid out pitch at Rue du 113me Régiment d'Infanterie Française – in fact the exact same location used by predecessor club ES Signeulx (matr. 3416) between 1942 and 1949. A small set of dressing rooms is erected, with an open bar adjacent to it.
- 1980 / The open bar at ES Signeulx’s ground is replaced by a roofed clubhouse, built into the already existing set of dressing rooms.
- 1984 / ES Signeulx finishes as runners-up in Belgian Luxembourg’s Provincial League 3A, 6 points behind champions FC Tintigny.
- 1995 / ES Signeulx’s pitch at Rue du 113me Régiment d'Infanterie Française is flooded by the River Vire, a stream flowing by the northern touchline of the ground.
- 1999 / ES Signeulx finishes as runners-up in Belgian Luxembourg’s Provincial League 3A.
- 2000 / Champions in Belgian Luxembourg’s Provincial League 3A, with an equal number of points as runners-up ES Châtillon, but with one victory more to their credit, ES Signeulx manages a historic promotion to Provincial League 2. The decision fell on the last day of the season, as Signeulx wiped out AS Nothomb-Post (6-1), while Châtillon were held to a stalemate. The title was all the more remarkable, given that ES Signeulx had been eleven points adrift of the league leaders halfway through the season.
- 2001 / Finishing in second-last place in their only-ever season in Luxembourg’s Provincial League 2A, ES Signeulx drops back into Provincial League 3 after just one season. Ever since, the club have usually been near the bottom of the table in Provincial League 3A.
- 2011 / As ES Signeulx celebrates its fiftieth anniversary, the club acquires the royal epithet, thus officially becoming Royal Éclair Sportif (RES) Signeulx.
Note 1 – Many thanks to ES Signeulx’s longtime secretary Guy Bertrand, also a former player of the club, for providing some essential parts of information for this article.
Note 2 – Below, a compilation of photos of two different visits: pictures 1-5 = non-matchday visit, August 2022 / pictures 6-19 = match visit, July 2025.
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