When the world began to discover Pelé, Just Fontaine (Marrakech, August 18, 1933) left a mark on history. He scored thirteen goals in the 1958 World Cup in Swedena figure that survives him now that he has just left with 89 years and a record that is close to turning 65.
Thanks to their goals, France far exceeded the expectations with which they arrived in Sweden. LThe French delegation traveled with only three shirts for each player, which only covered the first phase of the tournament. Nor was that a problem at a time when the usual thing was to reuse uniforms. The players themselves washed them. The French fans who sent packages with all kinds of food, wine, chocolate, to raise the spirits of their players, trusted their team more.
Fontaine scored thirteen goals in just six games, more than two per game and today he remains the fourth highest scorer in the history of the World Cup. The merit of him is that he did them in a single tournament and with boots that were not his. Before starting the championshipone of the only cues he had brought to Sweden broke down. There were no sponsors to overwhelm players with their products and each player had their boots that they took care of personally. And Fontaine had run out of them before he started. The solution was for his partner Stephan Bruey to lend them to him., who was a substitute and wore the same number. He didn’t need them, because the changes hadn’t been authorized yet. With them he scored twelve of the thirteen goals. The other did it upside down. “Some of my goals arose from the sum of two spirits within the same boot,” said Fontaine.
After scoring four goals in the game for third and fourth place against the Federal Republic of Germany, returned them to their owner. At the end of the tournament, the only recognition that Fontaine received was a rifle with his name engraved on it that was given to him by a Swedish newspaper. in a discreet ceremony in which only the director of the publication and the members of the French delegation were present.
Fontaine hailed from Africa, like many of today’s French internationals. He was born in Marrakesh when Morocco was a French protectorate. and Spanish. He was the son of a French man and a Spanish woman and after playing US Marocaine he went to France to play for Nice, first, and then for Stade Reims, with whom he won three Leagues and one French Cup. With Nice he had already won each title once.
After retiring, he began his career on the bench. He led PSG, Toulouse and the Moroccan team in the early 1980s, where he was already the seed of that team that reached the round of 16 in the World Cup in Mexico in 1986. The first African team to do so. But his first coaching experience was with the French team. He only led two friendly matches that ended in defeat for the French.