Raymond Kopa
 Kopa in 1963 | ||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Raymond Kopaszewski[1] | |||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 13 October 1931[1] | |||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Nœux-les-Mines, France[1] | |||||||||||||
| Date of death | 3 March 2017 (aged 85) | |||||||||||||
| Place of death | Angers, France | |||||||||||||
| Height | 1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)[1] | |||||||||||||
| Position(s) | Forward | |||||||||||||
| Youth career | ||||||||||||||
| 1941–1949 | Nœux-les-Mines | |||||||||||||
| Senior career* | ||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | |||||||||||
| 1949–1951 | Angers | 60 | (15) | |||||||||||
| 1951–1956 | Reims | 158 | (48) | |||||||||||
| 1956–1959 | Real Madrid | 79 | (24) | |||||||||||
| 1959–1967 | Reims | 244 | (36) | |||||||||||
| Total | 541 | (123) | ||||||||||||
| National team | ||||||||||||||
| 1952–1962 | France | 45 | (18) | |||||||||||
Honours
| ||||||||||||||
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only | ||||||||||||||
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.
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
[change | change source]Kopa was born to a family of Polish immigrants in Nœux-les-Mines, France.[2]
Career
[change | change source]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.[3]
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
[change | change source]Kopa died in Angers, France on 3 March 2017, aged 85.[4]
Career statistics
[change | change source]Club
[change | change source]| Club | Season | League | National cup | Continental | Total | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Angers | 1949–50 | Division 2 | ||||||||
| 1950–51 | ||||||||||
| Total | ||||||||||
| Reims | 1951–52 | Division 1 | 33 | 8 | ||||||
| 1952–53 | 33 | 13 | ||||||||
| 1953–54 | 31 | 11 | ||||||||
| 1954–55 | 31 | 11 | ||||||||
| 1955–56 | 30 | 5 | ||||||||
| Total | 158 | 48 | ||||||||
| Real Madrid | 1956–57 | La Liga | 22 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 30 | 8 |
| 1957–58 | 27 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 3 | 34 | 11 | ||
| 1958–59 | 30 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 37 | 11 | ||
| Total | 79 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 22 | 6 | 101 | 30 | ||
| Reims | 1959–60 | 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 | |||||||
| Total | 244 | 36 | ||||||||
| Career total | 541 | 123 | ||||||||
International
[change | change source]| National team | Year | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| France | 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 | |
- Scores and results list France's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Kopa goal.
| No. | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11 November 1952 | Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir, Paris, France |  Northern Ireland |
3–1 | Friendly | |
| 2 | ||||||
| 3 | 14 May 1953 | Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir, Paris, France |  Wales |
6–1 | Friendly | |
| 4 | ||||||
| 5 | 20 September 1953 | Stade Josy Barthel, Luxembourg, Luxembourg |  Luxembourg |
6–1 | 1954 FIFA World Cup Q. | |
| 6 | 30 May 1954 | Stade Heysel, Brussels, Belgium |  Belgium |
3–3 | Friendly | |
| 7 | 19 June 1954 | Charmilles Stadium, Geneva, Switzerland |  Mexico |
3–2 | 1954 FIFA World Cup | |
| 8 | 11 November 1954 | Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir, Paris, France | Belgium |
2–2 | Friendly | |
| 9 | ||||||
| 10 | 17 March 1955 | Estadio Chamartín, Madrid, Spain |  Spain |
21 | Friendly | |
| 11 | 15 May 1955 | Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir, Paris, France |  England |
1–0 | Friendly | |
| 12 | 9 October 1955 | St. Jakob Stadium, Basel, Switzerland |  Switzerland |
2–1 | Friendly | |
| 13 | 23 October 1955 | Dinamo Stadium, Moscow, Soviet Union |  Soviet Union |
2–2 | Friendly | |
| 14 | 8 June 1958 | Idrottsparken, Norrköping, Sweden |  Paraguay |
7–3 | 1958 FIFA World Cup | |
| 15 | 15 June 1958 | Eyravallen, Örebro, Sweden |  Scotland |
2–1 | 1958 FIFA World Cup | |
| 16 | 26 June 1958 | Ullevi, Gothenburg, Sweden |  West Germany |
6–3 | 1958 FIFA World Cup | |
| 17 | 1 October 1958 | Parc des Princes, Paris, France |  Greece |
7–1 | UEFA EURO 1960 | |
| 18 | 27 March 1960 | Praterstadion, Vienna, Austria |  Austria |
4–2 | UEFA EURO 1960 |
Honours
[change | change source]Reims
- Division 1: 1952–53, 1954–55, 1959–60, 1961–62[source?]
- Latin Cup: 1953[7]
- Division 2: 1965–66[source?]
- European Cup runner-up: 1955–56
Real Madrid
- La Liga: 1956–57, 1957–58[source?]
- European Cup: 1956–57, 1957–58, 1958–59[source?]
- Latin Cup: 1957[8][9]
France
- FIFA World Cup third place: 1958[source?]
Individual
- Ballon d'or: 1958; runner-up: 1959; third place: 1956, 1957[a]
- FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 1958[source?]
- Etoile d'Or: 1960[10]
- French Player of the Year: 1960[source?]
- FIFA XI: 1963[11]
- World Soccer World XI: 1963[12]
- World Soccer: The 100 Greatest Footballers of All Time[13]
- Golden Foot: 2006, as a football legend[14]
- UEFA President's Award: 2010[15][16]
- FIFA 100[source?]
- 3rd French Player of the Century[source?]
Orders
Notes
[change | change source]- ↑ Shared with Duncan Edwards
References
[change | change source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Raymond Kopa". L'Équipe (in French). Paris. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ "Raymond Kopa". National Football Teams. Benjamin Strack-Zimmerman.
- ↑ "Raymond Kopa – national football team player".
- ↑ "Stade de Reims 3–0 Milan". ceroacero.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 June 2022.
- ↑ "On this day, Real Madrid lifted club's second Latin Cup". RealMadrid.com. 23 June 2020. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
- ↑ "Real Madrid 1–0 Benfica". ceroacero.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 June 2022.
- ↑ "France – Footballer of the Year".
- ↑ "Matches of FIFA XI".
- ↑ "ERIC BATTY’S WORLD XI – THE SIXTIES" Retrieved on 26 November 2015
- ↑ World Soccer: The 100 Greatest Footballers of All Time Retrieved on 28 November 2015
- ↑ "Legends". Golden Foot. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
- ↑ Gaillard, William (4 February 2011). "Goals, not coal, for Kopa". uefa.com. Archived from the original on 22 August 2022. Retrieved 22 August 2022.
- ↑ "UEFA President's Award". UEFA.com. 2 January 2014. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 "Décret du 6 avril 2007 portant promotion et nomination" [Decree of 6 April 2007 on promotion and appointment]. Journal Officiel de la République Française (in French). 2007 (84): 6583. 8 April 2007. PREX0710142D. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
Other websites
[change | change source]
- 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
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