A charity association will take over the Toulouse club

It's Christmas before Christmas for Toulouse Basketball Club. A third-division club from the Pink City, the club is preparing to expand thanks to the arrival of several renowned investors.

French rugby and swimming superstars Antoine Dupont and Léon Marchand, along with rappers Bigflo and Oli, are to acquire stakes in TBBC, according to the media outlet La Dépêche. "These individuals share a sincere passion for sport and for Toulouse," the club's president, Fabien Conte, rejoices in the columns of the French daily.

With this glorious partnership behind the scenes, the Haute-Garonne institution will not lack ambition in the future. "Our goal is to progress to Elite 2 (editor's note: second division) within two or three years and to Betclic Elite (first division) within five to six years," reveals the TBBC director. "Toulouse, the third-largest city in France, deserves to have a basketball club."

The latter, renamed Toulouse Basketball Club after two seasons spent under the Stade Toulousain identity, is coming out of a complicated season in France, which ended with a last-minute rescue in the French third tier.

The identities of the four investors were not chosen at random. Antoine Dupont has been playing scrum-half at Stade Toulousain since 2017, a club with which he has won five national titles and two continental crowns. He also won the Olympic gold medal in Paris last summer in rugby sevens.

Four-time Olympic champion in the French capital twelve months ago, Léon Marchand was born in the Pink City. Also from Toulouse, the artists Bigflo and Oli are heavily involved in sports in their city. Last February, they notably created the third jersey for Valais captain Vincent Sierro's Téfécé 2024-2025 version .