Bruno Bollini

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bruno Bollini (born September 14, 1933 in Paris ; † February 20, 2015 ) was a French football player who played for the capital city clubs Stade Français and Racing Paris and made three appearances in the French national team.

Club career

Bollini, who played in both central defense and defensive midfield , began his career in youth with the USO Clichy from the Paris area. From the 1953/54 season, however, he was part of the first team of the capital club Stade Français , which at that time belonged to the top French division. At a time when substitutions and substitutions were not yet possible, the then 20-year-old was only occasionally called up at the beginning and had to accept relegation to the second division at the end of the season. From 1955 on, the young player took a regular place at the Stade Français and was able to move relatively close to the promotion ranks with the team after a poor performance in the previous year as fifth. While the club only managed to rise again in 1959, Bollini managed to return to the top division of France in December 1956 when he joined city rivals Racing Paris .

With the Racing Club he had joined one of the strongest teams in the country, but was also able to become a regular player in this immediately. He experienced his most successful years from the 1958/59 season. Initially, Racing took third place in the standings twice - albeit with a significant gap to the champions - and then narrowly missed the title as runner-up in 1961 and 1962. In 1962, the team from Racing was tied for second place behind Stade Reims and only failed to win the title due to the slightly poorer goal quotient . In a team around players like Francis Magny , Joseph Ujlaki , Jean-Jacques Marcel and François Heutte , Bollini was on the defensive, but he also scored up to six times per season. Racing had the best hit yield in the league in each of the two vice-championship years, but also had a relatively high number of goals against. After 1962 a strong negative trend set in, which in 1964 even led to relegation to the second division. Bollini, who still had a regular seat, followed Racing there. Even in the second-highest division, Racing only achieved placements in the lower half of the table in the following two years. In 1966 he ended his playing career at the age of 32 after 256 first division games with 28 goals and 116 second division matches with 16 goals.

National team

Bollini was 24 years old and was wearing the Racing Paris jersey at club level when he made his debut for the French national team at London's Wembley Stadium on November 27, 1957 . Against the English selection he suffered a 4-0 defeat that day, although he missed a good chance at scoring himself. Ultimately, this test match was his only use in the run-up to the 1958 World Cup and he was not considered for the final tournament squad. While Just Fontaine, known to him from military service, became the dominant player for the French with 13 hits and led the team to third place, Bollini made a trip to Russia at the same time with his club team.

It was not until December 1958 that he ran again in qualifying for the European Championship in 1960 in an encounter against Greece for France, but was neither considered again in the further course of the qualification nor was he in the final tournament squad. His third and last international match he played on March 15, 1961 in a 1-1 draw against Belgium.

Later work

After the end of his playing career, Bollini worked for the players' union UNFP and temporarily held the post of general secretary. Then he was also the sports director of the then professional club Paris FC . In a 1998 interview, he criticized the development of the football business towards superficiality, where, according to him, money is above ethics. At the time, he advocated fair payment of the players at the UNFP, instead there is now a kind of “gold-plated slavery”. Bollini died in February 2015 at the age of 81.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Bruno Bollini s'est éteint , parisfootballclub.com
  2. ↑ a b Bruno Bollini - Fiche de stats de joueur de football , pari-et-gagne.com
  3. ↑ a b Pourquoi Bollini n´a pas joué contre le Paraguay , leparisien.fr
  4. ↑ Joueur - Bruno BOLLINI , fff.fr
  5. ↑ Décès de Bruno Bollini , accessed on May 29, 2016 (French)
personal data
SURNAME Bollini, Bruno
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH September 14, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris , France
DATE OF DEATH February 20, 2015