At Racing Club de Strasbourg, record spending for exponential ambition

Fortune favors the bold, just look at the change in atmosphere in Strasbourg in the space of a year. Last summer, Racing had just completed a difficult season after struggling to stay in Ligue 1 ( ^15th place at the finish). In the middle of the summer preparation, Patrick Vieira was fired from his coaching position , replaced by Liam Rosenior, a young British player with a meager CV. Young (41 years old today) like his entire squad (average age 21.5, the lowest figure in the five major European leagues). Too young to perform against the wily French league players, many observers thought. And yet, a year later, all of French football has fallen under the spell of a dynamic team, with a polished game and a project that is finally taking off.

Racing, ^7th last season, is preparing to begin its third season of the BlueCo era, a consortium led by American billionaire Todd Boehly . This group of investors had…