Gérard Soler

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Gérard Soler (born March 29, 1954 in Oujda , Morocco ) is a former French football player who subsequently also worked as a club official .

Playing career in his clubs

Born in North Africa in France at the time , Gérard Soler came with his parents to mainland France at a young age , where his parents settled in Île-de-France and he himself played football in the youth teams of AS Poissy . In 1972 he signed a professional contract with the first division club FC Sochaux ; there he soon developed into a winger who "fought passionately, yes, doggedly, [... at the same time] an excellent team player with a sunny disposition with a steely morale and [on the pitch] with the necessary cheek". In particular, he was also dangerous on goals, although his main task was to provide his inside striker colleagues with passports and templates. During his first division years he was in no season among the top ten league hunters ; In 1975/76 he achieved his best ranking in eleventh (15 hits), in 1973/74 and 1985/86 he was 12th with 15 and 11 goals respectively. But with a total - depending on the source - 129 or 132 hits in 428 point games To this day he is one of the most successful attackers in the history of the French Division 1 .

His goal rate was particularly high during his time at Sochaux (67 goals in 162 league games), in which he also became a national player. Gérard Soler was unable to win a championship or cup title there or at one of his eight later clubs : two thirds each (1975/76 with Sochaux and 1980/81 with the Girondins Bordeaux ) and two fourth places (1978/79 with of AS Monaco , 1981/82 with Bordeaux) in the league final tables and two semi-finals in the Cup ( in 1974 and 1978 , each with Sochaux) were the biggest hits. On the other hand, he had to end a season in 20th and relegation rank with two of his teams: 1985/86 with SEC Bastia , which he had already left for OSC Lille during the winter break , and in the following season with Stade Rennes .

Apart from these clubs, Gérard Soler, who later in his career developed into a "wanderer" with mostly only one year engagements - only in Bordeaux and at FC Toulouse he stayed longer than one season - also with Racing Strasbourg and at the end of his career in the second division played at the US Orléans . In the European competitions he made a total of ten appearances (three each with Sochaux and Monaco, four for Bordeaux), and he also succeeded in this - in the UEFA Cup 1981/82 , when the Girondins Bordeaux in the second round against Hamburger SV eliminated - one hit.

Club stations

  • until 1972: AS Poissy (as a youth)
  • 1972–1978: FC Sochaux
  • 1978/79: AS Monaco
  • 1979–1982: Girondins Bordeaux
  • 1982-1984: Toulouse FC
  • 1984/85: Racing Strasbourg
  • 1985/86 (first round): SEC Bastia
  • 1985/86 (second round): Lille OSC
  • 1986/87: Stade Rennes
  • 1987/88: US Orléans (in D2)

In the national team

Gérard Soler, who during his time at AS Poissy was also a member of the French national youth A team and was named top scorer and best player of the competition at the 1977 tournament in Toulon as a member of the French U-21s , played in November 1974 under national coach Ștefan Kovács against the GDR his first of a total of 16 A-internationals for France . It then took a year and a half before Kovács' successor Michel Hidalgo appointed him again; In this encounter with Czechoslovakia , Soler scored the first of his four goals for the Bleus  - and injured himself in this scene, so that he had to be replaced after just 18 minutes. After that, in the face of strong competitors like Dominique Rocheteau or Didier Six, he was left out for a good two and a half years, was also absent from the French World Cup squad for Argentina and only made his third international match in four years at the end of 1978.

His real career in the blue dress began in April 1981; Called up in the World Cup qualifier against Belgium for the fourth time, he scored the goals to 1-1 and 3-1, which France had in view of the "close" constellation in this group - besides the Belgians and French, Ireland and the reigning vice world champions until recently Netherlands Chances for the two final round places - secured an eminently important victory. Nevertheless, he only became a regular player in the immediate run-up to the World Cup finals and was then an undisputed part of the French World Cup line-up . In Spain he was in the starting eleven in all five games of the preliminary and intermediate rounds, scored the interim equalization in the 1: 3 against England - and missed the semi-final against Germany , which went down in football history as the “ Thrilla of Seville ”; Coach Hidalgo had opted for Didier Six, who allegedly threatened to leave early in the event of further disregard and would then play a tragic role in the penalty shoot-out. In the subsequent match for third place, Gérard Soler was back in the game.

After this tournament he wore the blue dress for three more games, the last time in May 1983 against Belgium; then his weakness in the league led to the termination of his international career.

Functional activities

Shortly after his playing days, Gérard Soler was elected President of Olympique Avignon for three years in 1988 . From 1997 he was Vice President of AS Saint-Étienne . At the beginning of 2001 he was banned from the league association LFP for one year because of his involvement in the “passport forgery affair(affaire des faux passeports) , which involved forged travel and player passports. In the spring of 2002, an ordinary court was convicted of aiding and abetting in this matter to two years imprisonment on probation, a 50,000 euro fine and a one-year professional ban in the entire sports sector.

Palmarès

  • 428 first division games with (at least) 129 hits
  • 16 international matches (4 goals), World Cup participant 1982

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
  • L'Équipe / Gérard Ejnès: La belle histoire. L'équipe de France de football. L'Équipe, Issy-les-Moulineaux 2004, ISBN 2-951-96053-0

Web links

Notes and evidence

  1. a b c Chaumier, p. 281
  2. see the seasonal goalscorer lists in Sophie Guillet / François Laforge: Le guide français et international du football éd. 2009. Vecchi, Paris 2008, ISBN 978-2-7328-9295-5 , pp. 172-193
  3. 129 goals were there according to the club-wide listing by 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.; on the other hand, according to the statistics in the article “The great scorer of the French championship. They only had one target. ” In France Football of January 4, 2011, pp. 20/21, they even scored 132 D1 hits.
  4. L'Équipe / Gérard Ejnès: 50 ans de Coupes d'Europe. L'Équipe, Issy-les-Moulineaux 2005, ISBN 2-951-96059-X , pp. 235, 282 and 323
  5. ^ Alfred Wahl / Pierre Lanfranchi: Les footballeurs professionnels des années trente à nos jours. Hachette, Paris 1995, ISBN 978-2-0123-5098-4 , p. 191
  6. L'Équipe / Gérard Ejnès, La belle histoire, p. 333
  7. see the lists from 1981 and 1982 in L'Équipe / Gérard Ejnès, La belle histoire, pp. 338f.
  8. Michel Hidalgo: Le temps des bleus. Mémoires. Jacob-Duvernet, Paris 2007, ISBN 978-2-84724-146-4 , p. 136
  9. L'Équipe / Gérard Ejnès, La belle histoire, p. 148
  10. Hardy Greens : Football World Cup Encyclopedia 1930-2006. AGON, Kassel 2004², ISBN 3-89784-261-0 , p. 312
  11. ^ Frédéric Parmentier: AS Saint-Étienne, histoire d'une légende. Cahiers intempestifs, Saint-Étienne 2004, ISBN 2-911698-31-2 , pp. 223ff., On the penalties relating to Soler in particular pp. 227–229