Just Fontaine, World Cup goalscorer, dies

Just Fontaine, one of the legends of French football and the record holder for goals in the final phase of the World Cup, with 13 goals in swedish 1958he died at the age of 89, his family announced on Wednesday.
Born in 1933 in Marrakesh, in the former French protectorate of Morocco, Fontaine He was a classic centre-forward who, together with Raymond Kop, became a big figure at Stade de Reims in the 50s and early 60s.

In front Reims, “Fair”as he was popularly called, starred in epic European Cup duels against Real Madridfirst with He digs next to him and then with him in the white team.
Both clubs appeared in the final European Championship 1959, with a 2-0 victory in Madrid, a tournament in which Fontaine was the top scorer with ten goals.

He scored 30 goals in 21 games for the French national team. His great feat was scoring 13 goals in the 1958 World Cup Swedenan absolute record that remains unbroken 64 years later.

At that World Cup, France were eliminated in the semi-finals to finish third, beaten by Pelé’s rising title-winning Brazil.
Brazil beat France 5-2 in that semi-final, thanks to a hat-trick from Pele, then 17. Fontainewho scored the goal, later said: “When I saw Pele play, I thought I was going to hang my boots on a peg.”

In the French league, he scored 164 goals in 200 games. But two almost consecutive fractures of his left leg (double in 1960 and single in 1961), forced him to retire in 1962 at only 29 years old.
As a coach, two games stand out as the French coach in two friendlies and three seasons (1973-76) in the almost newly founded Paris Saint-Germain, which he managed during promotion to the first league in 1974. He was also a Moroccan coach. national coach 1979-81. and he trained in other French clubs.

He also founded in 1961 National Union of Professional Footballers of France.
During the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Fontaine received the Golden Boot in recognition of his record, at a ceremony where he was “proud” to receive the award from Ronaldo Nazario and Michel Platini.

In an interview with L’Equipe in 2015. Fontaine he admitted tired of talking about his record. “I’m not the one who talks, never. Others ask me.”
He also assured that he would change that record if he could play longer, because football is his passion, but after the second fracture “we could say that he almost became disabled”, he assured.

And as for his goalscoring ability, this is how he described his game: “He was fast, but he wasn’t the fastest. He was good with his head, but he wasn’t the best. He had a good shot with both feet, but he wasn’t the best. it’s a mixture of qualities”.
The announcement of his death, on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday in Toulouse, was followed by a series of reactions in French football.

French Football Federation (FFF) he expressed his “tremendous emotions” and announced that the memory of Fontaine “a minute’s silence will be observed at all pitches” of the game in the country, starting with the three Cup quarter-final matches played tonight.
PSG sacked the former manager as a “monument of French football” who took the club to the elite of French football.

It offers the same definition as “monument of French football”. Professional football league.
“Justo” is and will be a legend of the French team, said coach Didier Deschamps.
“A star of French football, an unparalleled scorer”, believes Stade de Reims, the club to which his career is linked, although he previously played for OGC Nice and US Morocco.
French striker Wissam Ben Yedder defined him as “a great man of football and beyond”.