Camille Libar

Camille Libar (born December 27, 1917 in Dudelange ; † October 9 or 10, 1991 ) was a Luxembourg soccer player who spent part of his career in his home country before continuing his career in France. There he was later also active as a trainer .

As a player in the club

The striker Libar started playing football when he was young when he started at Stade Dudelange in his hometown in 1932 . He then played for a club from Bad Mondorf , where he had an apprenticeship in a butcher's shop. He returned to Dudelange, found a job in metallurgy and played again for the Stade, where he moved up to the first team in 1935 at the age of 17. With this he achieved a number of successes in the following years, winning the Luxembourg Football Cup in 1938 and the national championship in 1939, 1940, 1945, 1946 and 1947. In addition, he was the top scorer in the country's top division in both 1946 and 1947, which he succeeded in doing thanks to his 17 and 22 goals respectively in these two seasons. Within the club he was even the best goalscorer six times.

In 1947 Libar moved abroad and signed with the French first division team Racing Strasbourg, which was under the conditions of professional football . In this, however, he was only called up sporadically and therefore moved again in 1948. With Girondins Bordeaux , a second division team from southwest France signed him. He immediately became a regular player and clearly surpassed his qualities in front of the goal from the Luxembourg time when he scored 42 times in 35 games in which he was on the field during the 1948/49 season. This earned him the trophy for the best goalscorer in the league and helped his team, which had a total of 107 goals, to rise. In the following year he had to be content with 13 shots in the first class. Nevertheless, he achieved an extraordinary success in 1950, as he was directly French champion with a previously promoted team.

Following the championship title, he was given in the summer of 1950 to the second division team FC Metz , for whom he met 17 times in the following season. His move to Metz had been mentioned by his new employer as a condition for Henri Baillot to be allowed to move from Metz to Bordeaux. In 1951 he went to league rivals FC Toulouse , but with nine goals scored in the course of the 1951/52 season he was unable to build on his scoring threat in previous years. In 1952 he ended his professional career at the age of 34 after 33 first division games with 14 goals and 86 second division games with 68 goals in France.

National team

Libar was 19 years old when he made his debut for the Luxembourg national team on November 28, 1937 in a 4-0 defeat in qualifying for the 1938 World Cup . The performance of the young player in the game in Rotterdam was perceived by the media as rather weak and accordingly criticized. On March 13, 1938 he was able to achieve a goal in his third international match in a 2: 3 against Belgium, where he showed a good performance. Exactly one week later he wore the captain's armband for the first time against Germany (1: 2). This was followed by a time in which he mainly took part in unofficial encounters with his national team and between 1940 and 1945, due to the Second World War, he had to do without wearing the national jersey. In 1947 he went to France, which was followed by a three-year break. On May 21, 1950 he was in an unofficial game against an English B-Elf his comeback, where he was team captain again; thereafter no further appointments followed. He played a total of eight international matches and scored three times; If you add the unofficial encounters, it comes to 24 missions with 13 hits.

Coaching career

From 1953 to 1957 he was the coach of the amateur club US Le Mans . In 1957 he took over his second-rate ex-club Girondins Bordeaux. This he led in 1959 to promotion to the top division, which was followed in 1960 by relegation as bottom of the table and his dismissal. At the end of his career in football, he was active as a player-coach at a club from Montguyon . He also worked as a physical education teacher. Libar died in 1991 at the age of 73 after a long illness.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Camille Libar , national-football-teams.com
2. ^ Alfred Wahl / Pierre Lafranchi: Les footballeurs professionnels des années trente à nos jours , Paris, Hachette, 1995, pp. 145f.
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Camille Libar ( Memento of the original from October 31, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , profootball.lu  
4. ↑ ^{a b} Camille LIBAR , racingstub.com
5. ↑ Football: Camille Libar , footballdatabase.eu
6. ↑ Camille Libar - national football team player , eu-football.info