Full name | Jeunesse Sportive de Kabylie llemẓiyen inaddalen n leqvayel ⵉⵍⵎⵣⵢⵏ ⵉⵏⴰⴷⴰⵍⵏ ⵏ ⵍⵇⵠⴰⵢⵍ |
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Nickname(s) | La JSK (The JSK) Les Canaris (The Canaries) Les Lions du Djurdjura (Izmawen n Ǧeṛǧeṛ/The Lions of Djurdjura) |
Short name | JSK JS Kabylie |
Founded | 2 August 1946 | (as Jeunesse Sportive de Kabylie)
Ground | Hocine Aït Ahmed Stadium |
Capacity | 50,766 |
Owner | Mobilis[1] |
President | El Hadi Ould Ali[2] |
Head coach | Abdelhak Benchikha |
League | Ligue 1 |
2023–24 | Ligue 1, 7th of 16 |
Jeunesse Sportive de Kabylie (Kabyle: Ilemẓiyen inaddalen n leqvayel; Tamazight: ⵉⵍⵎⵣⵢⵏ ⵉⵏⴰⴷⴰⵍⵏ ⵏ ⵍⵇⵠⴰⵢⵍ; Arabic: شبيبة القبائل), known as JS Kabylie or JSK, is an Algerian professional football club based in Tizi Ouzou, Kabylia. The club is named after the cultural, natural and historical region that is home to the Kabyle Berber people speaking Kabyle (the ⵊ ⵙ ⴽ on the center of the club logo means J S K in the Tifinagh alphabet and the Yaz (ⵣ) under the club logo is the most famous Amazigh (Berber) symbol considering it as the symbol of the Berber language and culture in North Africa, which gives a representation of the free person).[3] The club was founded in 1946 and its colours are yellow and green. The club currently plays in the Algerian Ligue Professionnelle 1.
JS Kabylie is the most successful Algerian club at the national level, having won the Algerian Ligue Professionnelle 1 title a record 14 times, the Algerian Cup five times, the Algerian League Cup once and the Algerian Super Cup once. It is the only Algerian club that has never been relegated to the second division, with a record 56 seasons in the row in top level, since the 1969–70 season.[4]
JS Kabylie is also the most successful Algerian club at the African level, having won a number of African titles, including the most prestigious African competition CAF Champions League twice in 1981 and 1990, the African Cup Winners' Cup once in 1995, the CAF Cup a record three times in 2000, 2001 and 2002 and the first ever (albeit unofficial)[5] African Super Cup once in 1982 during the Tournament of Fraternity.[6]
JS Kabylie has a total of 28 major trophies (record in Algeria).[7]
On the African level, JS Kabylie is the most successful Algerian club, but also the one which has played the most African competitions matches and the one of only two African clubs to have won the three different African competitions before 2005 (CAF Champions League, African Cup Winners' Cup and CAF Cup). It is also the one of only two clubs in Africa to win an African competition three times in a row which is a record. According to CAF, this performance ranks the club among the ten best African clubs of the 20th century occupying the 9th place and the IFFHS ranks JS Kabylie 7th in Africa during the decade (2001–2011) and also among the top 10 of all times.[8] In Africa, JS Kabylie is the 6th most successful club, with seven African titles. In Algeria, JS Kabylie is elected as the best Algerian club of the 20th century.
Following numerous events which took place in Kabylia in the 1980s (Berber Spring), and because the name of this club includes the word « Kabylie », it has since been considered by certain regionalists as being the gateway-torch of political-cultural ideas of the Kabylia region and the symbol of its identity struggle.[9]
JS Kabylie had several names during its existence such as the Jamiat Sari' Kawkabi from 1974 to 1977, the Jeunesse Électronique de Tizi-Ouzou with the abbreviation JET from 1977 to 1987 and also covered a short period of two calendar years between 1987 and 1989, the name of Jeunesse Sportive de Tizi-Ouzou, with the abbreviation JST.