Just Fontaine, the all-time top scorer in a single World Cup finals with 13 goals, has died aged 89, his family confirmed on Wednesday. Photo: AFP
Just Fontaine, the all-time top scorer in a single World Cup finals with 13 goals, has died aged 89, his family confirmed on Wednesday. Photo: AFP
Just Fontaine, the all-time top scorer in a single World Cup finals with 13 goals, has died aged 89, his family confirmed on Wednesday.
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Fontaine achieved the record in the 1958 finals in Sweden where France reached the semi-finals for the first time in their history, losing to Pele’s Brazil.
Part of a wonderful attacking trident at that World Cup alongside Roger Piantoni and Raymond Kopa, Fontaine might never have gone to Sweden at all.
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Only injuries to fellow forwards Thadee Cisowski and his Reims team-mate Rene Bliard saw him make the squad and then the starting line-up.
Fontaine also won four French league titles, one with Nice and three with the great Reims side of the post-war era.
He played in the Reims team that lost to the Real Madrid of Alfredo di Stefano, Ferenc Puskas and Raymond Kopa in the 1959 European Cup final.
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Fontaine was then forced to retire in 1962 at the age of just 28 after he suffered a double leg fracture.
He later moved into management, lasting just two matches in charge of France in 1967 before leading Paris Saint-Germain to promotion to the top division in 1974 and then coaching Morocco to third place at the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations.
By Garrin Lambley © Agence France-Presse