Since 1906
RC Lens
One club, one region,
one story of passing it on.
A Ligue 1 institution with more than 120 years of history.
Founded in 1906 in the heart of France's coal-mining region, RC Lens is a club shaped by its territory and built on values of hard work, humility, solidarity, and transmission.
Here, football is more than a game. It is a culture passed from one generation to the next.
A town of 30,000 people. A 38,000-seat stadium. The ratio says it all.
Our camps take place inside the club's academy, the same environment in which RC Lens identifies, develops, and prepares the players of tomorrow.
1906
Founded
120
Years of history
38,000
Seats at Bollaert-Delelis
40%
Of the first team developed at the academy
01
Bollaert
One of the loudest
stadiums in Europe.
Stade Bollaert-Delelis is known far beyond France for its matchday atmosphere. When the fixture list allows, players on camp attend a game from the stands. Many of them are still talking about it months later.
See the camps with a home game →02
La Gaillette
The academy.
Our training ground.
This is where the professional squad and the academy players work every day: the pitches, the gym, the restaurant, the boarding school. Our camps take place here, not in a facility rented next door. American players live the real daily routine of a player developed at the academy.
Discover the Immersion →La Gaillette
The facilities
The facilities of the professional squad and the academy players. Exactly the ones our players use during camp.
Stills from the official RC Lens video.
What the club is known for
Player development
The Lens academy is ranked among the very best in France, and one statistic is enough to prove it: 40% of the first-team squad came through the academy. Plenty of clubs develop players; here, the players they develop actually play. A club that cannot buy the best has to know how to grow them: that has become its identity, and its expertise.
Club coaches
The coaches running our camps work with the club's own academy players every day. These are their methods, not a program designed for the occasion.
Elite-level criteria
Our players are evaluated on the same areas used to assess the club's own youngsters: technical, game intelligence, athletic, mental.
A culture, not a backdrop
The shirt has to be earned, the team comes before the individual. That is what the player takes home, as much as the technical work.
Getting to Lens
Where is Lens?
In northern France, between Paris, Lille and the Belgian border.
- →Paris → Lens: direct high-speed train, about 1 h 10.
- →Paris-CDG airport → Lens: about 1 h 30 by train.
- →Lille → Lens: about 35 minutes.
- →London → Lille by Eurostar: about 1 h 20.
Our team guides every family through the journey and the arrival at La Gaillette.
Life at the academySimplified map, indicative travel times.