Alphonse Six

Alphonse Six
Player portrait of Alphonse Six while he was a member of the CS Brugeois club
Personnel
Surname	Alphonse Léopold Bauduin Six
birthday	January 1, 1890
place of birth	Bruges ,  Belgium
date of death	August 19, 1914
Place of death	near Boutersem ,  Belgium
position	Left-back and striker
Juniors
Years	station
1906-1907	CS Brugeois
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1907-1912	CS Brugeois	87 (92)
1912	Union Saint-Gilloise	0 0(0)
1913-1914	Olympique Lillois
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1909-1914	Belgium	9 0(8)
	Belgium (military)	4 0(?)
1 Only league games are given.

Alphonse Léopold Bauduin Six (born January 1, 1890 in Bruges , † August 19, 1914 in Boutersem ) was a Belgian football player who attracted attention at the then CS Brugeois because of his scoring threat . While he was still used as a left- back at the beginning of his career , he was very successful as a striker and as a goalscorer from the 1909/10 season . With the club he won the Belgian championship in 1911 and was the top scorer in the Belgian football league with 38 goals in the same year.

Career

Aspiring left-back

Alphonse Six was born on New Year's Day 1890 in the then quite tranquil city of Bruges as the seventh child of Emiel Six and his wife Sophie Claeys. While his father moved around as a goldsmith , his mother ran her own shop in the family home. After growing up in his hometown, he made it into the junior division of CS Brugeois in 1906 as a 16-year-old , under which the current football club Cercle Bruges appeared at the time. After only one year in the youth department, the now 17-year-old player was brought into the club's men's team as a left-back, where he was used in twelve league games during the 1907/08 season and scored one goal. The team landed in the final classment in tenth and thus last place, but escaped relegation, as the league was increased to twelve teams. Even in the following 1908/09 season , Six was used as a defender and contributed two goals to reaching sixth place in the table in 15 championship appearances. In the 1909/10 season , the young Belgian's offensive talent was finally recognized, who had already failed due to his hard shot.

Discovery as a top striker

So Six was finally used in 18 league games in the 1909/10 season, where he scored 27 goals and thus crowned the team's clear top scorer. With the goals of the young Six, success in the league followed. After showing rather poor seasonal performances in previous years, this season was already involved in the fight for the title. At the end of the season it was enough for the newly discovered offensive talent and his team to finish third behind the runner-up, local rivals FC Brugeois , and champions Union Saint-Gilloise . Because of his achievements, he was also brought to the Belgian national team for the first time , for which he was often used in the subsequent period. He played his most successful season with the team in 1910/11 , where he was used in 20 games and contributed 38 goals. After he had contributed exactly half of the total goals scored by his team, he made it to first place with the team in the final standings and thus won the first championship title in the still rather short history of the club. After that, the men's team only managed to achieve such a success twice, in the seasons 1926/27 and 1929/30 . After another team-internal scorer's crown, Six was also the top scorer of his team in the following season 1911/12 . He also managed to play in all 22 championship games of his team. His goal count this season, in which the team made it to fifth place in the table, was still correspondingly high with 24 goals. Although he already made it into the history books of Cercle Bruges with his scoring threat, he made it again in February 1912 in the 6-0 away win over the weak club Excelsior Brussels . He scored five goals, making him the only player in the club who managed to do this in an official league game. It is also noteworthy that on March 26, 1911, Six was persuaded to return to his formerly traditional position in the defense.

Transfer to Union Saint-Gilloise and Olympique Lillois

For the 1912/13 season , Six, who was scheduled for military service on November 4, 1911, received a lucrative offer from the then renowned capital club Union Saint-Gilloise , whose managers gave him a regular position on the team as well as a permanent job alongside the Football promised. When it finally turned out that those responsible did not keep what they had previously promised, Six was adamant and refused to play for the capital club. After threats and internal consequences for Six, he was occasionally suspended by the Royal Belgian Football Association and banned from Belgium. His so promising career as a football player turned into a negative from one moment to the next. But since his talent and his offensive power had already been discussed in the north of France , as he had previously appeared in various tournaments and friendly games in this region, the then club Olympique Lillois wanted to sign him . The subsequent move to France should prove to be successful. After the end of the 1913/14 season, Six was the first Belgian player to win a foreign championship, in this case the French one, which was organized and played by the then still existing sports association Union des sociétés françaises de sports athlétiques . He also won the team also the Trophée de France of 1914 . Six was already in the 4-1 semi-final victory over the Football Étoile Club Levallois on April 19, 1914 twice as a goalscorer and scored another three goals in the subsequent final encounter between Olympique Lillois and VGA Médoc Bordeaux . With another 4-1 win, the Trophée de France was won for the only time in the club's history. As in his time in Belgium, Six was also very dangerous in France and scored a goal in the season final game, which Olympique Lillois produced as champions and ended 3-0. After the First World War broke out soon after , Six had to return to his homeland, for which he ultimately had to serve in the war. About two weeks after the Belgian army entered the war (August 4, 1914), Six and his comrades fell victim to attacks by the Germans near the central Belgian town of Boutersem . After he was missing for some time, his death was later confirmed with the date: August 19, 1914. Previously, Six, who belonged to the depot of a Belgian cavalry division, was mobilized along with numerous other armed forces on August 1, 1914 and was only declared ready for action three days later. On August 15, 1914, he was assigned to the 3rd Lancers Regiment, although this division was more exploratory. After the unexpectedly quick fall of the fort in Liège , the Belgian King Albert I gave the order to retreat towards Antwerp . During this maneuver, according to eyewitness reports, Six was finally killed under heroic conditions along with his comrades. He found his final resting place at the Veltem-Beisem military cemetery , where he was reburied in 1925.

Time in the Belgian national team

Due to his scoring danger in the 1909/10 season, Alphonse Six, who had a special bond with his team-mate Frans Vanhoutte during his time in Bruges and with whom he got on virtually blindly on the field, was coached by William "Bill" Maxwell in 1910 brought into the Belgian national team. On March 13, 1910, he made his debut in an encounter with the Dutch national team , where he also scored the 3-2 victory for his Belgians shortly before the final whistle. As with his home club, Six was also very dangerous in the national team. In his total of nine international appearances, which he completed until his death in 1914, he scored eight goals. In addition, the offensive player was also called up four times in the Belgian military selection; However, nothing is known about goals for the military national team.

successes

with CS Brugeois

• 1 × Belgian champion : 1910/11
• 1 × Belgian top scorer: 1910/11 (38 goals)
• 3 × team-internal top scorer: 1909/10 (27 goals), 1910/11 (38 goals) and 1911/12 (24 goals)

with Olympique Lillois

• 1 × French champion: 1913/14
• 1 × winner of the Trophée de France : 1914

Web links

• Alphonse Six on cerclemuseum.be (Dutch)
• Alphonse Six in the database of the Belgian Football Association (English)