2023-11-10 15:39:55
“A football icon has gone to join the sporting gods. Just Fontaine, legend of the Stade de Reims, is an integral part of the history of our city. I will soon propose that a statue be erected in his honor. »
It all started last March with this tweet from the mayor of Reims Arnaud Robinet paying tribute to the man who wore the Reims colors from 1956 to 1962, writing the finest hours of the Reims club’s epic. Just Fontaine had just passed away, at the age of 80.
The striker Just Fontaine won three championships, finishing as top scorer in 1960 and 1958. It was he who also scored 13 goals in a single World Cup, that of 1958 in Sweden, at the end of which the French team finished 3rd. An unrivaled record.
Erecting a statue to him in Reims, on the same model as the one made in homage to Raymond Kopa in 2018, was therefore essential. “Just Fontaine has marked the history of football forever,” underlined Jean-Pierre Caillot, the president of Stade de Reims, during the tribute ceremony organized last March in Reims.
The statue of Raymond Kopa (our photo) will soon be joined by that of Just Fontaine on the square of the Delaune stadium in Reims. LP/ Marie Blanchardon
A human-sized figurative sculpture in bronze will therefore take place at the end of next summer, near the access to the Germain stand. Nearly €200,000 will be needed for this achievement. And, as for Kopa, the city calls for crowdfunding via the Collecticity online platform.
For the Kopa sculpture, nearly €80,000 was raised thanks to this participatory method, which represented 40% of the total amount of the operation. Real Madrid but also the city of Angers were among the 150 donors.
In the meantime, the former Stade de Reims player did not escape the all-out tributes on site. Four days after his death, a stencil portrait appeared on the grounds of the Stade Delaune, thanks to the Reims artist Kusek. And another representation has just been completed at the Pont de Vesle where Just Fontaine is represented with Bianchi and Kopa.
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