Stoppage-time goal promotes Amiens to France's Ligue 1
For the first time in its history, Amiens were promoted to France's top football league, Ligue 1, after a stoppage-time goal bumped them up from sixth place to second on Friday.
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The Ligue 2 season finished with a bang as Amiens' Emmanuel Bourgaud scored against Reims in the 96th minute of Friday's game, clinching his side's 2-1 victory.
Stakes were high, as the top six Ligue 2 teams were separated by three points before Friday's matches.
The club was set to finish sixth when the last-effort goal gave them the necessary points to be promoted to Ligue 1.
Amiens placed second in the league with 66 points, tied with third place Troyes. The two clubs are just one point behind champions Strasbourg, with 67 points.
Players and club officials overjoyed
"It was the best goal of my career, of my life," said Bourgaud. "The ball came to me, I shot, and it went in. It's crazy.
"I've always dreamed of playing in Ligue 1, and that dream has come true. We played a great season."
Defender Oualid El Hajjam was overcome with emotion. "I cried during the match, I had tears in my eyes, that's how badly I wanted to win," he said.
"We weren't winning, and I almost gave up. But at the end, they became tears of joy, it's incredible."
Club president Bernand Joannin described the moment as "extraordinary."
"Football is like a play, a spectacle every Friday night," he said. "Tonight, we performed an extraordinary drama."
Joannin said his gifting of a signed jersey to recently inaugurated President Emmanuel Macron, who is from Amiens, could have brought the team good luck.
"Emmanuel Macron, our new president, is from Amiens," he said. "He succeeded, he did well. We had to do well too."
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