Georges Bereta

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Bereta (2006)

Georges Bereta (born May 15, 1946 in Saint-Étienne , France ) is a former French football player .

Club career

The small son of a Polish immigrant worker grew up near the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard and joined AS Saint-Étienne at the age of eleven . However, the winger was not discovered for the big football by his club coaches, but it was his trainer in the “football battalion” of Joinville , the Saint-Étiennes professional coach Jean Snella with the words “You have the best left winger in France, but you don't even know that ! ” Drew attention to Bereta. At the end of 1966, Snella considered Georges Bereta for the first time for a first division game , which benefited from the fact that the Verts - the players from Saint-Étienne are known as "Greens" because of their club colors - were injured before the game against Lille . The left foot was strong, quick and tricky; Although he mainly entered crosses and assists for the inner strikers, he also scored almost 60 goals during his career, several of them from penalties .

In the following eight and a half years he won an impressive number of national titles with ASSE: he was champion of Division 1 five times , including four titles in a row from 1967 to 1970, and three times national cup winner . In the cup he was on the pitch in all the finals: in 1968 in a 2-1 win against Girondins Bordeaux , in 1970 in a 5-0 win over FC Nantes , where he scored the second goal, and in 1974 in a 2-1 win against AS Monaco when he won the Cup was presented by the newly elected President Giscard d'Estaing . Bereta also won the Doublé three times (championship and cup win in the same season) and the Supercup . He was personally appointed to the national team at an early age (see below) and twice named France's Footballer of the Year ; only the Étoile d'Or as the season's best player was denied him. In the European club competitions, however, Saint-Étienne came only twice beyond the first round; The 3-0 win against Bayern Munich in the European Cup in 1969/70 after a 0-2 first leg is one of Bereta's most positive impressions.

Three coaches shaped him and trusted him: until 1967 Jean Snella, who was also of Polish descent, until 1972 Albert Batteux and then his former teammate Robert Herbin ; The list of Georges Bereta's long-time teammates at the Verts also reads like a “who's who” of French professional football. Bosquier , goalkeeper Carnus , Jacquet , Keïta , Larqué , Lopez , Mekhloufi , Repellini , the brothers Hervé and Patrick Revelli , Santini and Sarramagna already belonged to this group in the 1960s . In the early 1970s, Bathenay , goalkeeper Ćurković , Janvion , Larios , Piazza and Rocheteau joined them.

From the beginning of the second half of the season 1974/75, Georges Bereta surprisingly wore the white jersey of Olympique Marseille , although he had been used in all 19 league games for Saint-Étienne. Ironically, the “quintessential ASSE player”, who has also been the team captain for years, fell victim to financial bottlenecks in his old and great plans for his new club, whose presidents Roger Rocher and Fernand Méric agreed on an immediate FF 500,000 transfer without the player even to have asked for his opinion. A particular piquancy was due to the fact that the relationship between these two clubs had deteriorated extremely since several previous poaching of Verts by Olympique (Carnus, Bosquier, Keïta). Nevertheless, in the end, the signatures of all three parties were under the treaties, which did not prevent Saint-Étienne's president from ranting across the country about an “unacceptable scandal” - by which he only meant his presidential colleagues. The reluctant Bereta himself later said: "It would have only taken one word from the ASSE and I would have stayed." The wound that this "dubious, sensational incident" had left hurt him decades later.

As a result of the move, he not only missed the semi-finals in the European Cup against Bayern Munich, but after another 16 games in Division 1 he had to be satisfied with the runner-up - behind "his" ASSE. Saint-Étienne also won the trophy and thus another doublé, in which Bereta had at least a "50% share". In the following three years, his new club only finished the season table in 9th, 12th and 4th place and did not survive the first round of his few European appearances, for example failing 1-0 and 0 in the 1975/76 UEFA Cup : 3 to Carl Zeiss Jena . However, Bereta was able to help win one last title in Provence when Marseille defeated the namesake from Lyon 2-0 in the cup final in 1976 . In the summer of 1978, the striker, who had only made two league games last season, ended his highly successful professional career.

Stations

  • Association Sportive de Saint-Étienne (1966 – December 1974)
  • Olympique de Marseille (January 1975–1978)

In the national team

Georges Bereta wore the blue jersey of the senior national team 44 times between December 1967 and May 1975 and scored four goals. He made his debut under national coach Louis Dugauguez in a 3-1 win against Luxembourg and played straight into the regular formation; this also remained so under the Dugauguez successors Georges Boulogne and Ștefan Kovács , where he has been placed more often in the midfield in recent years . Kovács appointed him in 1973 in addition to the team captain of the Bleus , which this remained during his last twelve games.

Bereta has also played against the other national teams from German-speaking countries, but never won: twice against West Germany (1968 1: 1 and 1973 1: 2), once against Switzerland (1970, 1: 2), Austria (1970, 0 : 1) and the GDR (1974, 2: 2). His national team career fell exactly in the "dark time" of the Equipe tricolore , in which France could not qualify for a single major tournament and had to watch both the European ( 1968 , 1972 ) and the World Cup finals ( 1970 , 1974 ). And when Michel Hidalgo took over the office of Sélectionneurs from Kovács, Georges Bereta was no longer considered.

Palmarès

  • French champion: 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1974 (and runner-up in 1971, 1975 [although he would formally belong to the Saint-Étienne team in 1975])
  • French cup winner: 1968, 1970, 1974, 1976
  • Champion's Challenge Winner (Supercup): 1967, 1968, 1969 (and finalist 1970)
  • 44 international A matches (4 hits), including 41/4 for ASSE and 3/0 for OM
  • 357 games and 58 goals in Division 1 , of which 281/53 for ASSE and 76/5 for OM
  • 22 games and 3 goals in the European Cup, including 18/3 for Saint-Étienne and 4/0 for Marseille
  • France's Footballer of the Year: 1973, 1974

Life after an active career

Georges Bereta worked for around 20 years in the French sales organization of Adidas , was then unemployed for two years and was then used by the Verts in the football training of the youngest members and in talent scouting in the region. For many years he has headed the circle of friends of former ASSE professionals. He currently works as a consultant for the private television broadcaster Onzéo , in which his old club ASSE and its league rival RC Lens are involved.

literature

  • Christophe Barge / Laurent Tranier: Vert passion. Les plus belles histoires de l'AS Saint-Étienne. Timée, Boulogne 2004 ISBN 2-915586-04-7
  • 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: Coupe de France. La folle épopée. L'Équipe, Issy-les-Moulineaux 2007 ISBN 978-2-915-53562-4
  • Frédéric Parmentier: AS Saint-Étienne, histoire d'une légende. Cahiers intempestifs, Saint-Étienne 2004 ISBN 2-911698-31-2
  • Alain Pécheral: La grande histoire de l'OM. Des origines à nos jours. Ed. Prolongations, o. O. 2007 ISBN 978-2-916400-07-5

Remarks

  1. ↑ Barge / Tranier, p. 43
  2. ↑ Chaumier, p. 38; Parmentier, p. 96
  3. ↑ L'Équipe / Ejnès, Coupe, p. 386
  4. ↑ The thought of this moment "already distracted him a bit in the final minutes of the final".  - L'Équipe / Ejnès, Coupe, p. 107
  5. ↑ L'Équipe / Gérard Ejnès: 50 ans de Coupes d'Europe. L'Équipe, Issy-les-Moulineaux 2005 ISBN 2-951-96059-X , p. 314
  6. ↑ Barge / Tranier, p. 105
  7. ↑ Pécheral, pp. 218/219
  8. ↑ Pécheral, p. 421
  9. ↑ Parmentier, p. 99
  10. ↑ Pécheral, p. 398
  11. ↑ L'Équipe / Gérard Ejnès: La belle histoire. L'équipe de France de football. L'Équipe, Issy-les-Moulineaux 2004 ISBN 2-951-96053-0 , pp. 327-333
  12. ↑ Figures from 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 o. J.
  13. ↑ L'Équipe / Gérard Ejnès: 50 ans de Coupes d'Europe. L'Équipe, Issy-les-Moulineaux 2005 ISBN 2-951-96059-X , pp. 271 and 320
  14. ↑ Chaumier, p. 39

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bereta, Georges
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH May 15, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint-Etienne , France