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Fontaine’s magic number still a watershed

PARIS - A third-choice striker for France going into the 1958 World Cup, Just Fontaine was to set the tournament alight with a record-breaking performance.

Fontaine’s astonishing 13 goals in six matches in Sweden remains the record tally for a player at a single World Cup.

Like so many famous players in World Cup folklore, Fontaine’s success was due in no small part to that most priceless commodity: luck.

Born in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh in 1933, Fontaine played his early football with US Marocaine of Casablanca, before making the move to France in the early 1950s.

He enjoyed three seasons with Nice from 1953, scoring a respectable 45 goals and helping the club triumph in the French Cup and League. A move to Stade Reims followed for the 1956-57 season.

Fontaine was bought by the club to replace Raymond Kopa, who had been transferred to Real Madrid.

In a fruitful partnership with France international Rene Bliard, Fontaine notched up more than 60 goals in two seasons, helping the club clinch the league and cup double in 1958.

Yet for all his prowess on the domestic front, Fontaine was under no illusions about his place in the pecking order in the French national team, third in the queue behind Bliard, and the talented Kopa.

“I’m centre-forward only until Kopa arrives,” Fontaine said as France settled in Sweden ahead of Kopa’s departure from Madrid. Fate, however, in the shape of an injury to Bliard, was to intervene.

Fontaine, a clinical finisher, was to provide the perfect foil for the more famous Kopa, blessed with immaculate close control and capable of splitting the meanest of defences with his pinpoint passing.

The duo struck a telepathic understanding from France’s very first match, Kopa helping Fontaine to a hat-trick as Paraguay were overwhelmed 7-3.

Fontaine took his total for the tournament to five in France’s next game, scoring both goals in a surprising 3-2 defeat against Yugoslavia.

A sixth goal was to follow in the final group match, a 2-1 win over Scotland that saw the French safely into the quarter-finals against Northern Ireland.

A weakened Irish side was no match for the free-scoring French however, and Fontaine helped himself to two more goals in a 4-0 victory.

Inevitably, Fontaine found the net yet again in the 5-2 defeat against eventual winners Brazil in the semi-finals.

But there was no question of France’s exit sating Fontaine’s hunger for goals: he banged in four more against West Germany in his side’s 6-3 victory in the third place play-off.

The 1958 World Cup should have been the start of a long international career for Fontaine, yet within a few years he was to retire.

He helped Reims win a league title in 1960, but in March broke his leg badly. After a nine-month injury lay-off, Fontaine returned.

Five games into his comeback, he broke his leg again, forcing his retirement at the age of 28.