If the general public remembers his three French championship titles won with Reims, within the offensive trident he formed with Raymond Kopa and Roger Piantoni, it was in Nice that Just Fontaine, who died on Wednesday March 1, began to add to his list.
Long before becoming the man with thirteen goals scored at the 58 World Cup, the native of Marrakech revealed the extent of his talent in Nice for three seasons.
Spotted at US Marocaine, his training club, by Mario Zatelli, it was at OGC Nice, from 1953, that he scored his first goals in the 1st division and in Europe. The ephemeral coach of OGC Nice will not be wrong.
A quintuplet unmatched for 60 years
As much a surface fox as a gunner, the elegant right-hander scored 52 goals in 83 games played. With in particular a quintuplet against Lens one day in January 1954, a record which will only be equaled in the history of the club half a century later, by Carlos Eduardo, in 2014.
It allows Nice to win its second title in the Coupe de France in 1954. With Nice, he adds up the goals. Especially during the 1954-1955 season when he investigated 20 achievements propelling the club’s top scorer.
The following season, and then solidly anchored in the collective of the French team where he chained the goals, it was under the orders of Luis Carniglia that he led the Gym to their third title of champion of France.
After three seasons, he joined the Stade de Reims where he added three French championships, a French Cup and two Champions Trophies to his list.
A tribute paid by the club this Friday
As part of the club’s 110th anniversary, in 2014, OGC Nice organized a reunion between Just Fontaine and his former friend Pancho Gonzalez.
OGC Nice will pay a strong tribute to its glorious former this Friday, during the meeting against AJ Auxerre, at 9 p.m.
