MADRID, 1 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The former French striker Just Fontaine, the player with the most goals in a single edition of the World Cup and one of the great football legends of his country, has died at the age of 89, confirmed this Wednesday the Stade Reims and Nice, the clubs where he developed most of his career.
“A French soccer star, an exceptional goalscorer, a legendary striker. To his family, his loved ones, the SDR sends its most sincere condolences,” Stade Reims wrote on its official Twitter profile.
For its part, Nice, where he played three seasons before heading to Stade Reims to replace another myth like Raymond Kopa, signed by Real Madrid, lamented the loss of the striker, “French football icon” and whom he will pay ” homage” before the match against Auxerre this Friday.
Fontaine was one of the most outstanding players in the 1958 World Cup held in Sweden where he was able to score 13 goals in six games, a figure never reached by any other player in the world. In that edition, France was third after losing in the semifinals against Pelé’s Brazil and beating Germany 6-3 in third and fourth place, scoring four goals.
Born in Marrakech, the striker, who had to retire due to injury very soon (29 years old), won four league titles, one with Nice (1956) and three with Stade Reims (1958, 1960 and 1962), two Cups nationals, one with each team, and played in the 1959 European Cup final with Stade Reims, lost 2-0 to Real Madrid 2-0. In addition, he was the Bronze Ball in 1958 behind Kopa and the German Helmut Rahn.
“The disappearance of Just Fontaine saddens me, as it will sadden all fans of football and our national team. Just is and will remain a legend of the French team. The striker who, by scoring 13 goals in a World Cup final phase, the of 1958, signed a record that is still unmatched during the first great epic of the ‘Bleus’ in the World Cup”, Didier Deschamps, current French coach, pointed out on the website of the French Federation.
The coach recalled that he had “the opportunity” to meet “several times” with the striker, “a man of great kindness, very respectful of the generations that followed him.” “Her attachment to him for the French team was strong and sincere,” he concluded.
