Raymond Kopa
Raymond Kopa (Raymond Kopaszewski; 13 October 1931 – 3 March 2017) was a professional French football player. He has played for France national team and for Real Madrid.
 Raymond Kopa in 1963 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Raymond Kopaszewski | ||
| Date of birth | 13 October 1931 | ||
| Place of birth | Nœux-les-Mines, France | ||
| Date of death | 3 March 2017 (aged 85) | ||
| Place of death | Angers, France | ||
| Height | 1.69 m (5 ft 6+1⁄2 in) | ||
| Position(s) | Forward (retired) | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1949-1951 1951-1956 1956-1959 1959-1967 |
Angers Stade Reims Real Madrid Stade Reims | ||
| National team | |||
| 1952-1962 | France | ||
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only | |||
In 1970 he became the first football player to receive the Légion d'honneur, and in 2004, Pelé named him one of the 125 Greatest Living Footballers at a FIFA Awards Ceremony.
Early life Edit
Kopa was born to a family of Polish immigrants in Nœux-les-Mines, France.[1]
Career Edit
After finishing second in the French national youth football trials in 1949, Kopa began his professional career at the age of 17 with SCO Angers in Ligue 2 and was transferred two years later to Reims, with whom he won French championships in 1953 and 1955.
He won the 1953 Latin Cup with Stade de Reims, where they defeated AC Milan 3–0 in the final, and helped them reach the 1956 European Cup Final, which the team lost to Alfredo Di Stéfano's Real Madrid, 4–3.
Kopa was also the first French player to win the European Cup when Madrid defeated Fiorentina 2–0 in the 1957 final. He would go on to be European champion again in 1958 and 1959, the last against former side Stade de Reims, where Just Fontaine played.
In the 1959–60 season, Kopa returned to France to finish his career with Reims, where he won further Championnats in 1960 and 1962. In total, he scored 75 goals in 346 matches in France's top flight, and was given the Ballon d'or by France Football in 1958.[2]
With the France national football team, Kopa scored 18 goals in 45 games between 1952 and 1962. He played in the 1958 FIFA World Cup in Sweden.
Death Edit
Club career statistics Edit
| Club statistics | League | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Club | League | Apps | Goals |
| France | League | |||
| 1949/50 | Angers | Division 2 | 30 | 7 |
| 1950/51 | 30 | 8 | ||
| 1951/52 | Stade Reims | Division 1 | 33 | 8 |
| 1952/53 | 33 | 13 | ||
| 1953/54 | 31 | 11 | ||
| 1954/55 | 31 | 11 | ||
| 1955/56 | 30 | 5 | ||
| Spain | League | |||
| 1956/57 | Real Madrid | La Liga | 22 | 6 |
| 1957/58 | 27 | 8 | ||
| 1958/59 | 30 | 10 | ||
| France | League | |||
| 1959/60 | Stade Reims | Division 1 | 36 | 14 |
| 1960/61 | 30 | 5 | ||
| 1961/62 | 30 | 2 | ||
| 1962/63 | 34 | 1 | ||
| 1963/64 | 25 | 5 | ||
| 1964/65 | Division 2 | 29 | 3 | |
| 1965/66 | 27 | 3 | ||
| 1966/67 | Division 1 | 33 | 3 | |
| Country | France | 522 | 114 | |
| Spain | 79 | 24 | ||
| Total | 601 | 138 | ||
International career statistics Edit
| France national team | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Apps | Goals |
| 1952 | 5 | 2 |
| 1953 | 6 | 3 |
| 1954 | 6 | 4 |
| 1955 | 6 | 4 |
| 1956 | 1 | 0 |
| 1957 | 0 | 0 |
| 1958 | 7 | 4 |
| 1959 | 4 | 0 |
| 1960 | 3 | 1 |
| 1961 | 3 | 0 |
| 1962 | 4 | 0 |
| Total | 45 | 18 |
References Edit
- ↑ Braun, Didier. "L'Équipe de France de football, c'est l'histoire en raccourci d'un siècle d'immigration" (PDF). L'Équipe. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 January 2012. Retrieved 15 August 2009.
- ↑ Hanot, Gabriel. "Palmarès Ballon d'Or – 1958 – Raymond Kopa". www.francefootball.fr. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
- ↑ Bouchez, Yann (3 March 2017). "Raymond Kopa, figure du football français, est mort". Le Monde (in French). Retrieved 3 March 2017.
- ↑ Strack-Zimmermann, Benjamin. "Raymond Kopa". www.national-football-teams.com.
Other websites Edit
- French Football Federation profile Archived 2018-10-19 at the Wayback Machine (in French)
- Raymond Kopa at National-Football-Teams.com
- L'Équipe stats (in French)
- FootballDatabase profile and stats
- European Champions Cup/UEFA Champions League Winning Squads
- Interview on uefa.com