The French Just Fontainethe player who has the record for goals with 13 in the same final phase of the World Cup, died at the age of 89, his family informed the AFP agency on Wednesday.
Fontaine broke the record in the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, a championship in which France managed to reach the semifinal for the first time in its history, being beaten by Pelé’s Brazil, who was later the winner of the tournament.
The top scorer in a World Cup
With Fontaine’s death, only three French players from that 1958 epic remain alive (Dominique Colonna, Robert Mouynet, Bernard Chiarelli).
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Born in Marrakech, Fontaine was not destined to play that World Cup because he was surpassed in the hierarchy of the team by Thadée Cisowski, who was injured at the last moment.
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In addition to the record of 13 goals and that historic World Cup semifinal for France, Just Fontaine achieved a great record in club football with four French champion titles (one with Nice, three with Reims), two French Cups (Nice in 1954 and Reims in 1958) and a European Cup final -the current Champions League), lost in 1959 2-0 against the great Real Madrid of Di Stéfano, Puskas and Kopa.
Fontaine’s playing career was brutally cut short at the end of 1962 at just 28 years old after a double broken leg.
Retired from the pitch, Just Fontaine became a coach, but his career on the bench was much more discreet.
With the French national team, he had a much less glorious job as a coach than as a player: he only lasted two games in charge of the national team in 1967, before being fired after two defeats in friendly matches.
His experience as coach of Paris Saint-Germain (1973-1976) was more successful, with promotion to the first division in 1974. He closed his career as a coach in his homeland, in Morocco, giving that country’s team third place in the 1980 African Cup.
Unbeatable
The mark still looks unreal: Just Fontaine scored in the 1958 World Cup in Sweden no less than 13 goals in 6 games. The average is more than 2 own conquests per game. unmatched. In recognition of such a feat, the tournament’s top scorer received a curious gift from a Swedish newspaper: an assault rifle. Still surprised, the forward exhibited it on his return to France.
Those who saw him play say that he was a very complete footballer. Relentless inside the area. He was capable of scoring from any position, with both feet and with his head. “I jump so much to pitch that when I go down I have snow in my hair,” he told Fifa.com with a laugh in an interview in 2010.
“Scoring goals in 1958 was not easier than it is now. The state of the playing fields, the quality of the materials and the weight of the ball, the duration of the trips between one game and another and the amateurism in general made everything much more complicated than today. In fact, I even wore boots that were not mine,” Fontaine contextualized, in an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian.
In that same talk, he compared: “Many things have changed. The ball and cleats are much lighter. The last great World Cup goalscorer, Brazilian Ronaldo, played against teams like China and Costa Rica. And, above all things, the referees protect the forwards much more than in my time. So let me say it again: scoring 13 goals in a single World Cup is a huge achievement. Beat my record? I don’t think it can be done.”
PAUL LISOTTO
THE NATION, OF ARGENTINA.
OF THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS GROUP (GDA)
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