François M'Pelé

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François M'Pelé (born July 13, 1947 in Brazzaville ) is a former Congolese football player who has completed most of his career in the French professional leagues . It is considered "the country's most successful football export".

Club career

Born in what was then the French colony of Central Congo , François M'Pelé played as a teenager for CARA and then for the Inter Club , both clubs from his hometown. In 1969 he came to France from the now independent Congo and played for the first division AC Ajaccio . With the Corsicans , the striker quickly developed into a regular under coach Alberto Muro ; Ajaccio's second season there surprisingly ended in sixth place in the table - it should remain the best placement during his eleven years in Division 1 . Personally, however, M'Pelé, who then also became a national player for his home country (see below) , developed into a top-class scorer; In 1971/72 he was right at the top of the top scorer list of the first division for the first time (8th place thanks to 17 hits), the following year the same number of goals was even enough for sixth place, while AC Ajaccio at the end of the season was bottom of the league the second division had to relegate. Although he also met a class lower regularly (ten " booths " in 17 games), the club sold him in the winter of 1973/74 to the league rivals Paris Saint-Germain .

Less than six months later, François M'Pelé returned to the top division with PSG, and in 1974/75 he scored 21 goals, making him the second best scorer in Division 1 . He benefited from the fact that his coach Just Fontaine promoted an offensive orientation and with Mustapha Dahleb another dangerous attacker played next to him. When, however, Carlos Bianchi, one of the most successful strikers of the 1970s, came to Paris Saint-Germain in 1977 , M'Pelé was heavily overshadowed by the Argentine, who scored 64 goals in two years. There was no title to win in the five years at the capital club for him, although the team was further strengthened with players like Jean-Michel Larqué , Dominique Baratelli , Dominique Bathenay and Luis Fernández ; in the league, PSG cut with one exception only in a double-digit table position, and in the cup they reached the semi-finals as the best result in 1975.

In 1979 M'Pelé switched to Racing Lens , with whom he again advanced to the semi-finals in 1981, but the championship title was also out of reach with the northern French . 1981/82 followed another season in the second division. For Stade Rennes he scored 16 more goals there, but this decent quota was not enough for promotion. François M'Pelé then ended his career in French professional football, in which he had played a total of 350 first division games and scored 129 goals; there were also 68 point games with 31 goals in Division 2 . After that, the player, who has been married to a Corsican since his time at Ajaccio - and later took on French citizenship - went back to his country of origin, where he opened a slaughterhouse in Pointe-Noire .

Stations

  • until 1968: CARA Brazzaville
  • until 1969: Inter Club Brazzaville
  • 1969 – late 1973: AC Ajaccio
  • Early 1974–1979: Paris Saint-Germain FC
  • 1979–1981: Racing Lens
  • 1981/82: Stade Rennes

National player

François M'Pelé played at least nine official senior international matches for the Republic of the Congo national team between 1971 and 1978 , scoring two goals. In 1972 he won the Coupe d'Afrique des Nations with the team , where he scored a goal in the 4-2 group game against Sudan and in the 3-2 final win against Mali and was also the "top performer of the Diables Rouges ". He was also a member of the continental selection that represented Africa in June 1972 in Brazil at the tournament on the occasion of the country's independence celebrations ( Taça Independência , also known as "Mini-Copa"). In the 2-0 defeat there against France , however, he was not used.

Palmarès

  • African champions 1972
  • 2006 Inclusion in the CAF list of the 200 best African football players since the middle of the 20th century

literature

  • Paul Dietschy / David-Claude Kemo-Keimbou (co-editors: FIFA): Le football et l'Afrique. EPA, o.r. 2008, ISBN 978-2-85120-674-9
  • Hardy Greens: World Football Encyclopedia. America, Africa & Oceania. The workshop, Göttingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-89533-640-9

Web links

Notes and evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Greens, p. 108
  2. ↑ to national-football-teams.com
  3. ↑ Number of hits during the individual seasons from Sophie Guillet / François Laforge: Le guide français et international du football éd. 2009. Vecchi, Paris 2008, ISBN 978-2-7328-9295-5 , pp. 169-180
  4. ↑ A photo of M'Pelés with Bianchi and Dahleb from January 1979 can be found in Dietschy / Kemo-Keimbou, p. 128.
  5. ↑ First division numbers according to Stéphane Boisson / Raoul Vian: Il était une fois le Championnat de France de Football. Tous les joueurs de la première division de 1948/49 à 2003/04. Neofoot, Saint-Thibault, n.d.; Second division numbers according to his data sheet at footballdatabase.eu (see under web links ).
  6. ↑ Dietschy / Kemo-Keimbou, p. 293
  7. ↑ According to the Greens, p. 107, he should not have played any more international matches after 1974.
  8. ↑ see the tournament dates at rsssf.com
  9. ↑ Dietschy / Kemo-Keimbou, p. 135
  10. ↑ see the list of the African selection in L'Équipe / Gérard Ejnès: La belle histoire. L'équipe de France de football. L'Équipe, Issy-les-Moulineaux 2004, ISBN 2-9519605-3-0 , p. 330
  11. ↑ see the list of the 200 best at sport24.gr
personal data
SURNAME M'Pelé, François
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Congolese soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH July 13, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Brazzaville , Republic of the Congo