Football World Cup 1930 / France

This article covers the French national team at the 1930 World Cup .

qualification

There was still no qualification at this World Cup, as only a small number of national teams - in times of the global economic crisis and before the introduction of regular transatlantic air traffic - were prepared to undertake the expensive and long journey to South America.

Contingent

The selection committee of the Fédération Française de Football Association, led by Gaston Barreau, nominated the following 16 players, taking into account that not all eligible players could afford to take several weeks off before the introduction of professionalism :

Surname	Association at the time	Date of birth	Sp.	Gates	Space management
goalkeeper
André Tassin	Racing Club de France	23 Feb 1902	0	0	0
Alex Thépot	Red Star Paris	July 30, 1906	3	0	0
defender
Numa Andoire	OGC Nice	19 Mar 1908	0	0	0
Marcel Capelle	Racing Club de France	Dec 11, 1904	3	0	0
Étienne Mattler	FC Sochaux	Dec 25, 1905	3	0	0
runner
Augustin Chantrel	CASG Paris	Nov 11, 1906	3	0	0
Celestin Delmer	Amiens AC	Feb 15, 1907	1	0	0
Jean Laurent	CA Paris	Dec. 30, 1906	0	0	0
Marcel Pinel	Red Star Paris	0July 8, 1908	3	0	0
Alexandre Villaplane	Racing Club de France	Sep 12 1905	3	0	0
striker
Edmond Delfour	Racing Club de France	0Nov 1, 1907	3	0	0
Marcel Langiller	Excelsior AC Roubaix	0June 2, 1908	3	1	0
Lucien Laurent	CA Paris	Dec 10, 1907	2	1	0
Ernest Libérati	Amiens AC	22 Mar 1906	3	0	0
André Maschinot	FC Sochaux	June 28, 1903	2	2	0
Émile Veinante	Racing Club de France	June 12, 1907	1	0	0
Trainer
Raoul Caudron		0Dec. 2, 1883

The Equipe Tricolore did not yet have a permanent national coach ; Caudron was a member of the FFFA's selection committee.

Games

Preliminary round

→ Main article : Football World Cup 1930 / Group 1

Group 1

rank	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1	Argentina	3	3	0	0	10: 04	+6	6-0
2	Chile	3	2	0	1	05: 03	+2	4: 2
3	France	3	1	0	2	04: 03	+1	2: 4
4th	Mexico	3	0	0	3	04:13	–9	0: 6

Sun., July 13, 1930, 3 p.m. in the Estadio Pocitos
France	-	Mexico	4: 1 (3: 0)
Tuesday, July 15, 1930, 4 p.m. in the Estadio Gran Parque Central
Argentina	-	France	1: 0 (0: 0)
Sat, July 19, 1930, 12:50 p.m. in the Estadio Centenario
Chile	-	France	1: 0 (0: 0)

In Group 1, France competed with Mexico, Argentina and Chile and played the first game, but not the official opening game, of this very first World Cup. Lucien Laurent scored the first ever goal in World Cup history against Mexico. The opening win was the Bleus , although goalkeeper Thépot had to leave the field after 26 minutes due to injury and France only played with ten men - for Thépot, the outside runner Chantrel went between the posts - at no point in danger. The unlucky fellow of the Mexico game almost became the hero of the game against the highly superior Argentines: Alex Thépot brought the South American attackers to despair, caught a number of "untenable" players and only had to let a free kick by Monti pass shortly before the final whistle.

Although they would have been group winners with a win against Chile and a defeat by Argentina against Mexico as well as a draw between Chile and Argentina, the rivals for first place, the French went into their last game without their goalscorers Maschinot and L. Laurent and cashed her second defeat. In the end, with the first World Cup victory in history and two defeats in their luggage, they left the tournament as third in the group.

literature

• Denis Chaumier: Les Bleus. Tous les joueurs de l'équipe de France de 1904 à nos jours. Larousse, o. O. 2004 ISBN 2-03-505420-6
• Gérard Ejnès / L'Équipe: La belle histoire. L'équipe de France de football. L'Équipe, Issy-les-Moulineaux 2004 ISBN 2-951-96053-0
• Folke Havekost / Volker Stahl: Football World Cup 1930 Uruguay. AGON, Kassel 2002 ISBN 3-89784-245-9

Web links

• Page of the FFF (French)
• FIFA World Cup (German)