The French footballer Just Fontaine, who has died aged 89, was one of the major surprises of the 1958 World Cup finals in Sweden. Arriving there with the France squad as a reserve striker with few expectations of being called to the colours, he ended up with the remarkable total of 13 goals – a record that will surely never be surpassed.
Fontaine’s partnership in those finals with the dazzling Raymond Kopa, the one who really pulled the strings, was jaw-dropping. “Those French forwards are like greased lightning,” remarked Tommy Docherty, then a Scotland wing-half. Sturdily built, Fontaine had pace, together with a flair for knowing when and where the ball was coming to him; especially from Kopa, who operated as a deep-lying centre-forward.
He had gone to Sweden expecting to deputise for the Reims striker René Bliard. In the event Bliard was injured and Fontaine was picked for the opening game in Norrköping against Paraguay, having to borrow a pair of boots as his own were not up to the job.
The South Americans scored first, but thereafter it became the Kopa and Fontaine show. France, devoid of a winning game all year, simply tore the opposing defence to shreds. Fontaine, who had said in training camp, “I am our centre-forward only till Kopa arrives”, let alone Bliard, was in blistering form. The attacking trio was made up by the talented Roger Piantoni.
Fontaine equalised the opening goal by Florencio Amarilla, and the floodgates opened with France winning 7-3, Fontaine completing a hat-trick. Even when, in the next match in Västerås, France lost 3-2 to a gifted Yugoslavia side, Fontaine bagged a couple more, the first coming four minutes from kick-off, the second four minutes from the end. Next came Scotland in Örebro, where Docherty’s fears proved justified as Fontaine and Kopa each scored in a 2-1 victory for France.
By now he seemed to be getting a taste for things, and in the quarter-finals in Norrköping a weary Northern Ireland team could not withstand him. The French cruised home 4-0, two of the goals going to Fontaine.
Even Brazil, who had not conceded a goal in the tournament thus far, could not stop him scoring in the semi-final in Stockholm. Who knows what might have happened had France not lost their centre-half, the elegant Robert Jonquet, after 37 minutes. Vavá had scored for Brazil after only a couple of minutes, Fontaine had equalised after nine, but, reduced to 10 fit men, France could not contain the devastating Brazil attack and eventually went down 5-2, as would Sweden in the final.
For France the consolation of the third-place play-off match, in Gothenburg, remained. The match was played against a West Germany team weakened by injuries, and they proved no match for Kopa and Fontaine. Time after time Kopa’s inspired through-passes breached the square West Germany defence, to send Fontaine thundering through on goal. Four times he scored in France’s 6-3 win, comfortably securing the coveted World Cup Golden Boot for top scorer in the tournament. He remained the only French player to have won it until Kylian Mbappe’s award in Qatar last year.
Born in Marrakech in French-controlled Morocco, to a Spanish mother, Maria (nee Ortega) and a French father, Delphin Fontaine, who worked for the state tobacco authority, Just grew up with his six siblings in Casablanca, where he went to the Lycée Lyautey. In 1950 he signed for USM Casablanca, where Nice spotted him and brought him to France in 1953 to play at centre-forward. He won his first international cap aged 20 in a World Cup qualifier against Luxembourg, in which he scored a hat-trick. But he did not get his next cap until 1956, against Hungary in Paris, where the Hungarians won 2-1. Fontaine was again dropped – for a year.
His third cap arrived against Hungary once more, but this time in Budapest, in 1957. Again France lost, again Fontaine was dropped, but he was reinstated in March 1958 in a match against Spain, in which he scored. So he duly went with the France squad to Sweden.
While at Nice, Fontaine had also had to do 30 months’ national service, being released by the army only before individual matches, due to the Algerian war. In 1956 he moved to Reims, where he was top scorer in the French league in 1957-58 and 1958-59, and in 1959 he and Kopa found themselves on opposite sides in a European Cup final – Kopa for Real Madrid, who won 2-0 in Stuttgart. Some consolation for the defeat lay in the fact that Fontaine was the leading scorer in that year’s tournament, with a total of 10 goals. Shortly afterwards Kopa transferred to Reims and the two were reunited, staying together up front until Fontaine was forced to retire in 1962 after twice breaking his leg.
Altogether he had won 21 caps for France, the last of them arriving in 1960, and had scored 30 goals for the national side. In club football he won the French first division title four times (once with Nice and three times with Reims) and the French cup twice (once with each club).
After he stopped playing, Fontaine became president of the footballers’ union in France, of which he was a co-founder, and managed the French national team for a short time in 1967. He then took charge of Paris Saint-German for three years and, although his managerial career never quite equalled his achievements as a player, he was also at Toulouse (1978-79), after which he managed the Morocco national side (1979-81). In 2004 he was named by Fifa as one of the 100 greatest living footballers in a list compiled by Pelé.
Fontaine eventually moved to Toulouse, where he owned two clothing shops. He was also co-opted on to the French pools panel, predicting the results of postponed matches.
Fontaine had a son and daughter with his wife, Arlette.
• Just Fontaine, footballer, born 18 August 1933; died 1 March 2023
• This article was amended on 5 March 2023 to correct the number of goals Fontaine scored in the France v Scotland game of the 1958 World Cup; in that tournament he played against West Germany, rather than Germany.
