How Le Mans rose from sixth tier to cusp of top-flight return

How Le Mans rose from sixth tier to cusp of top-flight returnImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Thibaut Courtois is one of many sportspeople to invest in the French clubByLuke EntwistleBBC Sport in Le MansPublished2 minutes agoCommentsWords such as "speed" and "acceleration" permeate conversation about the French town of Le Mans - synonymous with the iconic 24-hour race that it hosts - but in this instance they reference its football club, now backed by big-name athletes and on a rapid rise.It has been a long road back for Le Mans FC since they last featured in Ligue 1 in 2010.Bankruptcy in 2013 meant they dropped to the sixth tier of French football. Last summer, the club returned to Ligue 2 while also welcoming new owners in the form of OutField.The Brazilian investors brought Novak Djokovic, Felipe Massa and Kevin Magnussen with them. Real Madrid and Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois would later join the project."We wanted to bring really high-profile people that could help us leverage the project from a branding perspective," OutField co-founder Pedro Oliveira tells BBC Sport.The link with Massa and Magnussen, both former Formula 1 drivers, is perhaps obvious given the town's motorsport heritage. The connection was also forged by a common contact, Georgios Frangulis, the founder and CEO of Oakberry, now an investor and operating partner at Le Mans. Massa was already an investor in Frangulis' company, and also had a close connection to Magnussen. Frangulis is also the husband of Aryna Sabalenka, the world number one in women's tennis, hence the connection with Djokovic. "[Frangulis] told us that Djokovic is crazy about football. We spoke to Djokovic, he liked the project, so he decided to invest," said Oliveira.Courtois "really liked the whole idea of what [Le Mans] are building", and so he reached out to the investors and joined the project back in February."It is important that they k...