The name of the legendary French striker Just Fontaine, who scored the record for the number of goals in one version of the World Cup (13 goals) in 1958, and who died today at the age of 89, will remain stuck in memory because of this achievement that will not be repeated most likely. To this day, only three players have more goals than Fontaine and they are German Miroslav Klose (16 goals), followed by Brazilian Ronaldo (15) and then the other German Gerd Mueller (14), although Fontaine participated in one version of the finals and played 6 Matches only.
Argentine star Lionel Messi equaled Fontaine’s number by scoring 5 goals in the World Cup in Qatar on his way to leading his country to the world title, but he scored his 13 goals in 5 copies. Fontaine (21 international matches) was one of the stars of the French national team in the World Cup in Sweden in 1958, when he led his country to the semi-finals for the first time in its history before losing to Brazil, led by Pele.
Fontaine was not originally in the initial squad for the French national team participating in the World Cup in 1958, but the injury of his teammate in the front line, Tadi Sisovsky, and his colleague in the ranks of Rene Rene Bleyar, made him join the national team at the last moment, and then to the starting lineup.
Fontaine recalls an incident that happened with him before heading to Sweden, when he said in an interview with Agence France-Presse in 2013, “When we arrived at the airport before heading to Sweden, Paul Nicolas (a member of the Lavni apparatus) and Albert Patou (the national team coach) who did not really want me told me that I I will play in the spearhead position.”
In addition to his achievement in the World Cup, Fontaine has an impressive record at the club level, as he was crowned French League champion 4 times, including once with Nice (1956) and 3 times with Reims (1958, 1960, 1962), in addition to winning the French Cup twice (with Nice 1954). And with Reims in 1958), he also competed in the final of the European Champions Clubs Cup (currently the Champions League) with Reims in 1959 and lost to Real Madrid.
His football career ended suddenly at the age of twenty-eight due to a double fracture in his leg, and he said in this regard, “The world talks a lot regarding my record, but I would give it up in order to continue in the stadiums for five or six additional years, because football is my passion.”
“I was at the top of my game (when he retired), and I was making a lot of money at that time. It wasn’t the amounts we are seeing now, it was only five times the minimum wage,” he added. Fontaine, who was born in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh in August 1933 to a French father and a Spanish mother, entered the training arena and received the French national team in 1967, but he did not stay long at the head of the coaching staff following losing the first two friendlies. He supervised the training of Paris Saint-Germain from 1973 to 1976, and promoted the team to the ranks of the first division in 1974. He ended his coaching career with the Moroccan national team, where he led it to third place in the African Nations Cup in 1980.
