Dieux du Stade 2012

François Rousseau is responsible for this extraordinary collection of French rugby players and their friends in the buff. Not long ago there began the fad of making calendars of Firemen by local fire departments as a fundraiser and as also a tongue in cheek tease — hunky men posing in the altogether but almost never revealing more than a healthy well toned physique. But no one has come up to the standards of Dieux de Stade. A brief history of the concept, 'Dieux du Stade (English: Gods of the Stadium) is the title books, DVDs and calendars first published in 2001, featuring nude and semi-nude photographs of members of Stade Français, a Paris-based domestic French rugby team. In more recent years, players from other rugby union clubs and athletes from other sports have also been included. The calendars and book have mostly black-and-white nude, erotic photographs of the players. The photographs are known for their homoerotic character. Originally created in support of charity, the popularity of the calendars has been credited for the increased fame of the Stade Français team, as well as rugby in general, in France. The calendars are part of a marketing strategy crafted by Max Guazzini, President of the rugby club. A savvy marketer who built the NRJ Radio group, he has successfully used the calendars to attract a new audience to rugby matches, both live and on TV.

The calendar for 2012 features the highly acclaimed rugby player Sébastien Torresin on the cover, and the players who strut the pages of the months of the year are Julien Arias, Jules Plisson, Paul Sackey, Antoine Burban, Laurent Sempéré, Dimitri Szarzewski, Alexandre Flanquart, Fulgence Ouedraogo (Montpellier), Rémy Martin (Montpellier), Alexandre Lapandry (Clermont), Henry Chavancy (Ile de France), Benjamin Lapeyre (Toulon), Benjamin Dambielle (La Rochelle), Yann Lesgourgues (Biarritz), Marc Baget (Bayonne), Cédric Coll (Aix en Provence), Noah Cato (Northampton). And a solid team this is! For all sports fans and for those who admire the magnificence of the male body in perfect shape, this is a calendar to buy.