Alain Orsoni

Corsican politician, separatist militant and football (soccer) club president. Founder of the FLNC-Canal Habituel (Corsican: Canale Abituale, FLNC-CA) and its political wing, the Movement for Self-Determination (Muvimentu per l’Autodeterminazione, MPA), Orsoni led the organization until its dissolution in 1997. He was known as the 'Corsican Godfather' and 'Man of Seven Lives' due to his criminal convictions and proclivity for creating new identities overseas to flee persecution.

His father, a war hero from the Second World War, left when Orsoni was young to fight in Algeria, where he later joined the OAS. After a brief period as a far-right activist, Orsoni became an avid supporter of Corsican independence and moved left on the political spectrum. In 1976, a year after his participation in the Aleria standoff, he joined the newly-formed National Liberation Front of Corsica (FLNC). In 1988, Orsoni took action during the fracture of the FLNC to preserve a ceasefire signed with the French. Later, Orsoni led the FLNC-CA, and formalized peace with the French government and began a war with the other FLNC splits. After a seven-year-long war with the FLNC-Canal Historique (Canale Storicu, FLNC-CS), in which he played a major role, The Canal Habituel dissolved and Orsoni fled to Nicaragua where he began a gambling business and became involved in extortion. In 2008, Orsoni returned to Corsica and became president of the football club AC Ajaccio.

Alain Orsoni was assassinated on 12 January 2026, presumably by an organised crime group, while attending his mother's funeral in Corsica. Orsoni was killed by a single gunshot to the heart fired from a long gun. He was 71.