Georges Lech

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Georges Lech [ Lɛʃ ] (born June 2, 1945 in Montigny-en-Gohelle , Pas-de-Calais department ) is a former French football player .

Club career

The striker , who started playing football at Carabiniers Billy-Montigny , was considered a great talent very early on; Some even saw him as the successor to Raymond Kopa , with whom he had in common his rather graceful physique and the ability to assert himself through his technical skills, especially his dribbling skills . Like Kopa, Georges Lech was the son of a Polish-born miner from the coal mining area in northern France. At the age of 17 he signed a contract with Racing Lens , and in October 1962 he played his first game in Division 1 in the right wing position. Just a year later he was also appointed to the national team for the first time. In the following six years with the Sang Or et ( "blood red and gold" is the common French name for the club from Lens ) was Georges Lech neither a title - as best ranking jumped in 1964, a third rank out - another cup victory granted , but he was a good passer (until 1965 for the Ahmed Oudjani storm tank ) and scored numerous hits himself. In the 1966/67 season he was even the second best league shooter with 25 goals.

In 1968 he moved to FC Sochaux , where he stayed for four years; But even with this club, a third place in the league final table in 1971/72 remained the greatest success in Lech's career. At the end of this season he was committed to Stade Reims , where he also played for four years - among other things at the side of his brother Bernard; there Georges Lech was mostly used in midfield , as a template for the goalscorer Carlos Bianchi and Delio Onnis . In 1974 he reached the cup semi-finals with the red and whites from Champagne , in 1976 he was best placed in Division 1 in 5th place - but this last season a serious knee injury meant that he had to end his playing career at the age of less than 31. He played his last game as a professional with Reims against RC Lens, the club where he played his first game in the French top division.

Stations

  • Carabiniers Billy-Montigny (1959–1962)
  • Racing Club Lens (1962–1968, 187 games / 71 goals in D1)
  • FC Sochaux (1968–1972, 118/39)
  • Stade Reims (1972-1976, 74/7)

A total of 379 games and 117 hits in France's first division.

National player

Between October 1963 and March 1973, Georges Lech was appointed to a total of 35 senior international matches in the national team, for which he also scored 7 goals. In his first international match against Bulgaria (3-1 in European Championship qualification), he benefited from the transfer of the regular right winger Maryan Wisnieski to Italy and from the early departure of Raymond Kopa; At 18 years and 4 months, Lech was one of the youngest debutants of all time in the blue national jersey and, as a newcomer, had played 11 international matches in a row. From June 1965, however, he had to struggle with fluctuations in performance, especially since he no longer fit national coach Henri Guérin into the tactical concept, so that Lech missed the World Cup participation in England , although he was still significantly involved in qualifying for it .

Only the interim coaches Snella , Arribas and Fontaine brought him back to the Bleus in 1966 - before their successor Louis Dugauguez again renounced his participation in September 1967. When he was replaced by Georges Boulogne at the end of 1969 , Lech received recognition of his achievements again and was a regular member of the national team for the following three and a half years. In total, he has played 16 international matches during his time with Lens, 17 with Sochaux and two with Reims; however, his career fell at a time in which the Équipe tricolore (except 1966) could neither qualify for a European nor for a World Cup finals.

After the time as a player

Georges Lech then worked as a representative for Adidas for a good two decades before falling victim to a change in corporate strategy associated with job cuts in the late 1990s. In addition, he is currently (2007) still Chairman of the Association of “Alumni” of Stade Reims.

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
  • Pascal Grégoire-Boutreau / Tony Verbicaro: Stade de Reims - une histoire sans fin. Cahiers intempestifs, Saint-Étienne 2001 ISBN 2-911698-21-5
  • Paul Hurseau / Jacques Verhaeghe: Les immortels du football nordiste. Alan Sutton, Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire 2003 ISBN 2-84253-867-6
  • L'Équipe / Gérard Ejnès: La belle histoire. L'équipe de France de football. L'Équipe, Issy-les-Moulineaux 2004 ISBN 2-951-96053-0

Remarks

  1. ↑ Chaumier, p. 189; Hurseau / Verhaeghe, p. 82
  2. ^ Jean-Philippe Rethacker / Jacques Thibert: La fabuleuse histoire du football. Minerva, Genève 1996, 2003 2 ISBN 978-2-8307-0661-1 , p. 407; Marion Fontaine: Le Racing Club de Lens et les "Gueules Noires". Essai d'histoire sociale. Les Indes savantes, Paris 2010, ISBN 978-2-84654-248-7 , p. 152
  3. ↑ Match dates based on 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.
  4. ↑ Hurseau / Verhaeghe, p. 82
  5. ↑ L'Équipe / Gérard Ejnès, p. 323ff. and 382f.
  6. ↑ Chaumier, p. 190

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lech, Georges
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH June 2, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Montigny-en-Gohelle