Just Fontaine was super French. He was a French football player who played as a striker. In the 1958 world cup, he was the highest scorer with 13 goals in six matches. Fontaine was born on 18 August 1933 and died on 28 February 2023. Born in Marrakech Morocco, a colony of France, his father was s French and his mother was Spanish. From there moved to Casablanca to attend the club lycee Lyautey. He started his career at Casablanca from 1950 to 1953. Then he moved to other clubs in France and played well. In the 1958-59 European Cup, he played against Real Madrid. The Fontane side won the cup.
Then Fontaine came to the national side of France. In his debut match against Luxemburg, he scored a hat trick. France won the game 8-0. In seven years he scored 30 goals in 21 matches. Fontaine will be best remembered for his 1958 world cup performance scoring 13 goals in six matches. It is the highest number of goals ever scored by one player in a single world cup. He got the Golden Boot award. It may be mentioned that in this world cup pele was the star, but could not match Fontaine as a scorer. Fontaine played his last match in July 1962, being forced to retire early at the age of 28 years 11 months because of a leg injury.
In 1967 He managed the French national team but was replaced only after two years which ended in defeats. Then he became the coach of Morocco which got third place in the Africa Cup of Nations in 1980. Morocco reached the final stage of the 1982 world cup qualifying but was beaten by Cameroon. At last, he was sporting director of Paris Saint Germain F.C. managing the club to the First Division.
Fontaine was much praised by Peles and considered one of the best 125 players in the world. He was chosen as the best Franch player of the last 50 years by the French Football Federation, in November 2003 In 1961 He founded the National Union of Professional football players. Fontaine criticized the Franch National team in the 2010 world cup in South Africa. Fontaine died on 28 February 2023 at the age of 89.
The 1958 World Cup was the culmination of Fontaine. Due to injury of other players. Fontaine could make the squad. Fontaine himself has said-It was only at the airport before leaving for Sweden that Paul Nicolas (Part of the national team staff) and Albert Batteux (the France coach) who did not really go with me, told me I would be playing as a center forward.
Kopa was the biggest French Star of the era. When he died in 2017 Fontaine remembered fondly his big brother Raymond had the character “So did I and that made us a magical duo. Those French forwards were like greased lightning. Fontaine had pace, together with a flair for knowing when and where the ball was coming to him, especially from kopa, who operated as a deep-lying center forward.
Thus Just Fontaine was super French. He was a French virtuoso. Fontaine took the prestige of France to a great height. Even Pele becomes a shadow before Fontaine. Fontaine was great among the greats of the time-people, gerd muller, Ference Puskas Didi, Vava, Garrincha, Raymond Kopa, Piantoni, Skoblar, and others. We should and the topic with his own saying-we talk a lot about my record but I would definitely have swapped it for another five or six years because football was my passion
